If you go weak at the knees for a blue-eyed brunette, you could be headed for danger as experts have revealed these are some of the most common traits found in romance scammers.

With almost 8 million people using online dating in the UK, fraudsters know exactly how to get people clicking on their profiles and they'll make sure they use the right photographs to lure their victims in.

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.

When I asked him why he needed to be there doing that kind of work, he said he traveled all over the world.

My children were here at my house when all of this was taking place (when he asked me to send him money via and didn't want my son to know about this.

It started in the spring of 2014, when the woman joined an online dating service and started chatting with a man.

I think the biggest giveaway was that he was in Africa and wouldn't say exactly where and then asked me to send him some money when he was supposed to be in the construction business.A Brantford, Ont., senior citizen who lost 0,000 in an internet scam fell victim to one of the most profitable deceptions, police say — romance.For more than a year, the woman and a man had an intense online relationship.Around 7.8 million UK adults used online dating sites in 2016, up from just 100,000 in 2000.But just as dating app users are at an all-time high, so is the number of people becoming victims of online dating fraud.