Think you’ve clicked? Make sure he’s Mr Real

DATING websites reported an explosion of interest during lockdown, as millions of new customers seek romance online.

But the boom hasn’t gone unnoticed by con artists, who use the same websites to carry out sophisticated scams.

Before coronavirus, some 2,000 Brits were caught in romance scams, with a total of £18million lost last year. Now Barclays reports a staggering 89pc rise in attempted romance scams during lockdown.

The most common trick is the so-called ‘catfishing’ scam, where fraudsters create fake identities online in order to dupe real singles.

The aim is to build enough trust with their victim so that they can find a reason to ask for money. Once the cash has been sent, it’s hard to get it back — as banks typically consider it to have been handed over voluntarily. Romance seekers are encouraged to put their date’s photograph into Google’s image search function to see if the picture has been taken from elsewhere. A lack of photos or friend accounts is also a sign of a fake social media profile.

Users should be extremely cautious about sending money to anyone they haven’t met in person. Di Pogson, below, turned to online dating after the death of her husband. Di, in her 50s and from West Yorkshire, got chatting to someone she believed to be a charming businessman working overseas.

With a profile full of glamorous holiday photos, her date looked convincing and was happy to spend hours on the phone talking to her.

In reality, ‘Kevin’ was the creation of a Midlands-based criminal gang who used a string of similar profiles to cheat women out of their savings. After finding out that Di was an animal lover, the gang used a story about a sick pet dog to coax her into sending money. Eventually, she lent some £40,000. She only got back £1,300 when the gang’s assets were seized by a court order.

Di says: ‘The criminal gangs behind these scams are extremely professional.’