More than 800-thousand euro was stolen through romance scams last year.
38 people reported money stolen by someone pretending to be a love interest online last year.
Gardai say victims regularly meet these scammers through fake profiles on dating apps, with communication often transferred to a separate messaging platform.
The average amount stolen from victims in recent years was 28-thousand euro.
Detective Superintendent Michael Cryan, from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, says women are most likely to be targeted.
“It can happen to anyone, the majority, 75% to 80% of the victims over the last five years were females with over 20% of these were over 60 years of age, and 70% were over 40.”
Detective Cryan added “last year, we had thirty-eight victims reported just over 800,000 euros stolen, and in the past five years, we had just over 7 million reported stolen to an garda Síochána.”
