I definitely agree that deception is much more prevalent in online relationships.
You can lie to your partner in a face-to-face relationship and deceive them about what kind of person you are and possibly your sexual orientation, but everything else the other person can physically see for themselves. I think it is incredibly unethical for people to misrepresent themselves online when involving a close, personal or romantic relationship. When two people decide to commit to an intimate relationship, trust and respect are two big investments, and you can not reach that level of trust through representing yourself inaccurately. For example, if two people began getting to know each other online, and one of them was inaccurately stating their sex, this could cause huge emotional and mental issues for the other person if they found out. It could also possibly scar them from getting into another relationship. As I said before, deception is likely in both types of relationships, but it is known to be much more prevelant in online. In the article Cyberspace: Love Online, from Psychology Today, the author explains how much faster people are with self-disclosure in online relationships, and the attachment is almost immediate. This allows for a much higher rate of disappointment if one of the people in the relationship is caught in a lie.
I agree that it's easier to lie online since it's impossible to lie to someone we meet at a store. It's easy to lie to someone that you can't see. It's also hard to detect lies when you are communicating with someone online. The same lies would be impossible to hide in a face to face encounter. You have to make the assumption that the person is smart enough to know not to tell lies that they can't hide. Their sex is a good example of one thing that will quickly be revealed once the two people meet face to face.
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