5 Fake Love & Sex Websites That Fooled The World

In recent days, the online world has been shocked and enraged over "April's Mom," a woman who has blogged for months about her supposedly doomed pregnancy with a terminally ill daughter-to-be—only to be revealed as a hoaxster in desperate need of attention.

Winning over thousands of readers, advertisers and endorsements from anti-abortion organizations, "April's Mom" painted herself as a single woman who chose to carry her pregnancy to term, despite the fact that her "daughter" would never survive. When she finally gave birth to the "baby girl" (who only "lived" for a few hours), it didn't take long for readers of the blog to question the validity of the whole story (after all, the supposed newborn was actually a doll). Read: Hope My Daughter Marries...

With some snooping, they found out that "April's Mom" was actually a 26-year-old social worker from suburban Chicago named Beccah Beushausen.

When asked why she did it all, Beushausen explained to the Chicago Tribune that she had, in fact, lost a son shortly after birth in 2005, and started the blog to deal with those feelings, as well as to voice her anti-abortion sentiments. Abortions Rise With The Recession

"I know what I did was wrong. I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved."

But should Beushausen really be sorry? And should her readers really be angry? Don't we all know better than to believe everything we read these days (especially when it's on the Web)?

You'd think so. But Beushausen isn't the first person to draw criticism from the masses for creating an elaborate online hoax. Below, we've listed 5 Fake Love & Sex Websites That Fooled The World.

1. Technicalvirgin.com. Launched during the height of promise rings and virginal pop stars, Technical Virgin was a fake pro-abstinence site claiming that there was a way for teens to have sex but still, technically speaking, remain virgins. We trust that you know what they were suggesting. Unfortunately, not everyone found the site informative or funny. Melanie Martinez, who appeared in two 30-second fake ads for the site, lost her job on the PBS Kids Sprout network for her involvement with the hoax, and the site has since been taken down.

2. Mailorderhusbands.net. "Have you been clicking for love in all the wrong places?" Mail Order Husbands thinks you have. Deeming themselves the "world's top spousal order fulfillment service," Mail Order Husbands features men such as Daryl, who is 17 and will be kicked out of his parents' house by the end of the year; and Steven, who regularly makes trips to Mexico to buy "souvenirs." 50% Of Women Regret Marrying Their Husbands

3. Ourfirsttime.com.  The mother of all love and sex hoax websites, Our First Time advertised that on August 4, 1998, two 18-year-old virgins named Mike and Diane would be taking their first roll in the hay, and taking it live on the internet, for people who were willing to pay a viewer's fee. Almost immediately after launching, the website received mass recognition. But the whole thing, of course, was fake. Ken Tipton, the mastermind behind it all, had no intentions of broadcasting sex online. He just wanted to pocket a few dollars from some very gullible people.  

4. Americansforpurity.com. A site that firmly and hilariously opposed the evils of self-pleasure, Americans For Purity (when it was still live) presented hard-hitting "facts" about masturbation, including: "Experts claim there are at least 150,000 Americans masturbating RIGHT NOW. Masturbation costs American businesses at least $3.14 billion in lost productivity every month."

5. Avirginsplea.com. A 25-year-old Scottish man who went by the name of Geoff claimed on A Virgin's Plea that a female friend of his would do the dirty deed of deflowering him if only he got a million hits on his website. Soon, other sites were linking to his and media outlets around the world were requesting interviews with the web-savvy virgin. In the end, however, it turned out that Geoff was neither a virgin, nor the creator of the site. He was just the guy in the pictures. His friend, Matthew Gamble, invented the hoax as a viral marketing experiment and obviously, it worked.