Date Fakes -- Smooth-Operating Imposters Take Victims' Love And Money

Laura Belcher thought she'd met her prince.

Undercover officer Reginald Malone was warm and caring. He sent her flowers, a teddy bear and romantic cards - sometimes as many as three in a day. He was attentive to Belcher's 9-year-old daughter.

"I'd had such miserable luck with men all of my life, and I finally thought I'd met my dream man," said Belcher, a 36-year-old minister's assistant for the Jesuit Community at Seattle University.

But Belcher's prince turned out to be a frog.

Reginald Malone lied about who he was. Despite his badge, his walkie-talkie and his familiarity with police lingo, Malone did not work at a police station, but a book bindery. A previous wife and a live-in girlfriend thought he was a celebrated Navy diver. He was not.

Malone - convicted of theft and impersonating a police officer - is a date fake.

The scary thing is, Malone is not alone.

Date fakes here and across the country lie not only about their jobs but about their ages, their names, their financial status and, inevitably, their marital status, say psychologists and private detectives.

Date fakes will take your money or break your heart. Or both.

Tacoma private eye Sandy Taylor said clients who have been duped by men sometimes call her in the middle of the night.

"They're scared, they're embarrassed, and they don't know which way to turn," she said. "I try to keep a professional distance, but it's hard when you know what's been done to them."

Georgia Kearns, a private investigator in Seattle for three decades, said she used to check out about one date fake a year for wealthy clients. But in the past few years, she's handled 15 cases for women from all walks of life. Kearns said the AIDS scare, the increasing number of single women, and increased awareness that people have a right to know something about who they date have boosted business.

But how do you know when someone is making himself up?

"The mythology that a liar can't look you in the eye just isn't so," said Dr. Gordon Deckert, who speaks around the country about liars and lying. "These liars who prey on women will look you right in the eye. They're on stage, acting out a part. But their audience is the people they're trying to entice."

In Seattle, recent victims include a teacher, an art collector, a computer programmer and a Seattle Times business reporter.