The Telegraph reported that were behind 1,212 online dating scams last year which ask for money, citing a variety of emotive reasons.

There were also 45,114 fraud offences connected to online shopping and auctions, such as people falsely selling goods they then never send or people obtained goods they never pay for.

The growing problem has emerged from the Government’s new Action Fraud reporting centre, which received 116,300 reported offence last year.

The crimes contributed to a 27 per cent rise in overall fraud offences to 229,018, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In addition identity fraud is on the up. So make sure you have different smart passwords for every service and that you change them every 30 days.