Almost a million taken by fraudsters across East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire in dating scams
People are manipulated into giving money
Valentines day might be a happy occasion for some, but not for those who've been the victims of a dating scam.
New figures reveal almost a million pounds has been lost to so called "romance fraud" in East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire over the last 13 months.
It's where a person is asked for money by a someone who they believe they're in a relationship with.
You could be asked to send that person money
It's left victims not only out of pocket but very upset.
We spoke to Devan Witter from the Fraudwatch project in Bridlington who told us:
"It can really mean that a person could be financially affected by sending the person money. "
"With romance fraud a person is often playing on a relationship that a person believes they're having with somebody that's approached them - usually online."
"We're looking at things around people who seem a bit too good to be true on social media."
They may say they need cash to come and visit you
"It might be you feel like you've seen them before and they're sending photos of someone you may or may not recognise."
"And they're requesting money saying they're going to come and visit you and are asking you to make a payment."
"To help identify it you can do a reverse image search - look at that image online and use one of the reverse image search engines to see if you can find that image appearing elsewhere."
"You might be able to identify who's appearing in that image."