Protect Yourself against Catfishing, or "Online Sweetheart," Scams 

This type of scam is getting more attention now that Manti Te'o, a college football player, was victim to it when news broke of his online girlfriend, who never existed. According to the Better Business Bureau, this is one of the top ten scams for this year.

A few of the warning signs of such a scam include:

1. Wanting to leave the dating site to communicate on a personal email account or instant messaging system
2. Proclaiming instant feelings of love
3. Claims to be from the U.S., but is traveling or working overseas
4. Plans to visit keep getting delayed by unexpected or tragic events

It's very important that you never wire money to an online dating scammer claiming to need funds to cover travel, medical emergencies, hotel or hospital bills, visas or temporary financial set backs.

To learn more about how you can protect yourself against this type of scam you can visit these three websites:

OnGuardOnline.gov - a quick article on protecting yourself against these scams

StayingSafeOnline.com - a more in depth look at how you can prevent becoming a victim

FBI.gov - a link to a podcast with a member of the FBI all about these types of scams

Reports of a New iPhone

Published reports say Apple is planning to release a new iPhone this year. One will reportedly have a larger screen and another will have a 12 megapixel camera.

Ralph Nader Calls Video Game Makers "Electronic Child Molesters"

In an interview with Politico, Ralph Nader, a political activist, made a controversial statement, calling video game makers "electronic child molesters." Nader called for Pres. Barack Obama's gun control package to be strict with the makers of violent video games. 

This isn't the first time Nader has made that exact statement. Back in 1999, in the wake of the Columbine High School shootings, he wrote the same thing on his blog, which you can read here: The Nader Page: Making Parents Irrelevant.

Dutch Architect to Print a Home

A Dutch architect plans to build a home using a 3-D printer, called a D-Shape. The D-Shape uses sand to form a marble-like material. You can read more about the printer here: www.d-shape.com/cose.htm (If you open the link in Chrome, you can use Google translator to translate the website to English.)

According to the BBC, the project will cost between $5 and $6 million dollars and it will be completed by the end of the year 2014. The house will be in a unique figure eight shape, which you can look at the plans here: www.universearchitecture.com/docs/ua_landscape.pdf

You can read the full article on CNN here: www.cnn.com/2013/01/22/tech/innovation/building-3-d-printer/index.html