A 37-year-old downtown San Diego man will be sentenced next week for targeting and robbing men on a popular gay chat and hook-up Web site.

According to District Attorney prosecutors, it is unknown exactly how many people Timothy Williams – the cyberspace predator who prowled Internet dating sites for potential victims – targeted on Adam4Adam.com. At least four victims have come forward or been located. Williams stole several checks and at least one credit card from the victims. He cashed checks and deposited funds into his own bank account.

“Williams and the victims met through the online Web site,” said Bruce Silva, who is prosecuting the case. “It is unknown if there were multiple meetings, but we know there was at least one. During that time, without the victim’s knowledge, Williams was able to surreptitiously steal their checks, checkbooks or credit cards and commit this series of crimes.”

After one of the victims reported the crime, detectives located and arrested the perpetrator for the multiple robberies. On Jan. 24, Williams pleaded guilty to three separate counts of forgery of checks, burglary and grand theft. During the four-month Internet crime spree, which lasted from September to December 2007, Williams stole more than $10,000 from the known victims, and now faces one-year in jail for the crimes he commited, according to Silva.

“He apparently did this to a number of people,” said James Schuiteman, one of the victims.

The 54-year-old Azalea Park man was not aware he had even been a victim of Williams’ until after Schuiteman was contacted by a detective from the San Diego Police Department investigating the suspect in relation to a similar crime.

“I knew that there was a major discrepancy in my bank account, but could not figure out how it had occurred,” Schuiteman said.

Schuiteman said that he had talked to Williams, who used the alias “Darrius,” a few times via e-mail prior to meeting him. “He seemed like a perfectly nice guy, and it’s not that I didn’t know things like this could happen, but I just never thought it would happen to me,” he said, noting he regrets trusting someone so easily.

Trying to recover the more than $3,200 stolen from his account has proved to be difficult. So far, Schuiteman has been unsuccessful.

According to Silva, this is the first case of its kind that he has seen in more than three years of working in economic crimes in San Diego.

Still, crimes committed by strangers met on the Internet are not uncommon.

In early 2006, a 39 year-old San Diego man, Raymund Catolico, was strangled. His body was found stuffed under a bathroom sink in his Little Italy apartment.

Catolico, an avid user of Adam4Adam.com, met his killer James Alexander Hardy, a 19-year-old Marine, online and invited him into his home, where Hardy killed him.

Police officials from across the nation report an increase in online dating crimes in the past five years. Officials say Internet rip-off schemes related to sex and romance sites are among the fastest growing segments of the overall online crime problem.

“This should serve as a warning to the gay community that everyone should all be aware of who they are letting into their home when cruising and hooking-up on the Internet,” Schuiteman said.

Adam4Adam.com, which was launched in 2003 by a company called “Convergent Ideas, LLC” and is now operated by “A4A Network Inc.,” joins several online dating sites in warning users to beware of potential crimes, and posts tips on how to safely connect with others when meeting on the Internet.