Midlifers are being targeted by a complex financial fraud that can take victims two months to realise they have been conned.

Scammers seduce people into believing they are seeking a romantic relationship and convince victims to hand over large sums of money. The scammers then steal their money and cease contact. 

On average victims are targeted over a period of 62 days and typically lose more than £6,000 before realising they are being conned, new data from TSB bank has shown. Some victims have lost far more.

Women are the target in two thirds of cases. Experts said lonely, middle-aged women had spent more time alone during the pandemic and were increasingly falling victim. 

The number of people being caught by scams is rising. More than 1,600 victims lost in excess of £15m to romance frauds in the first half of 2021, up from fewer than 935 people targeted and losses of less than £8m the year before, according to the banking trade body UK Finance.

Such scams, now the focus of popular Netflix documentary “Tinder Swindler”, see fraudsters use dating websites to entrap the vulnerable looking for companionship. After grooming their victims, scammers offer up stories of plight and ask for financial help, before taking off with the cash.

Separate research from Lloyds Bank showed its own customers lost £8,700 to the scams in 2021 on average, with the number of reported cases up by 16pc last year.

Those aged between 45 and 54 were the most likely victims, with fraudsters taking advantage of increasing levels of isolation over the past 18 months, the bank said. 

TSB said most scams (35pc) took place on Facebook. This was followed by dating app Tinder, where around a quarter of victims were caught. One in five was duped while using dating site Plenty of Fish, with close to one in 10 fell victim on rival Match.com. 

The bank said one woman was convinced she was talking to a soldier stuck in Libya. “The conversations were romantic in nature with the fraudster claiming he needed the money to get home for Christmas”, it said. 

The woman sent six payments amounting to £1,200 before realising she had been scammed.

Another case lasted almost two years after a woman was seduced by a scammer on Instagram and carried on conversing via the messaging system Whatsapp. The woman made 36 payments totalling £40,000 before the fraud was uncovered, the bank said. 

Telegraph Money reported in November how one 59-year-old widow who had turned to online dating for the first time during the pandemic lockdowns lost £120,000 to a romance scammer. The sham romance lasted nine months before the victim realised she was being abused.