One of the most common techniques is to build up trust with the person by messaging for weeks or even months before suddenly having an emergency - the fake person being mugged but their daughter needing urgent surgery, for example - and asking for money.But then they suddenly need money for rent too, then food, then medical fees, and it can quickly escalate.“My friends advised me to go online and try to find someone to share my life with,” she says via Skype.Firefly spent a lot of time on her profile, thinking she needed to be entirely honest and open if she hoped to really connect with someone.Her new boyfriend had a complicated backstory: He was an American soldier serving in Iraq, and he had a son living in Ghana.But she had revealed to her new online beau how much she wanted children, and soon his 14-year-old son was emailing her.

They’re using the site to gain your trust and ask you for money or enough personal information to steal your identity.

Five years ago, an Austrian woman decided to give online dating a try.

(She asked that I only use her internet handle, Firefly, for reasons that will soon become clear.) It had been about a year since Firefly got divorced.

A new report by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has found that last year, singles were conned out of £39 million by fraudsters they’d met on dating sites and apps.

Con artists are increasingly creating fake online profiles and tricking people on dating sites into handing over often large sums of money.