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There is a new scam on the Internet for [them / those] looking for love. Criminals are trying to trick people by [used / using] old love letters and romantic language. Conmen can easily buy "scam packs" to help them trick would-be daters [into / onto] their scam. The pack is [availability / available] online and only costs [the / a] few dollars. It includes love-letter templates, photos, videos and [falsely / false] identities. This is all that is [needed / need] to pretend to be someone looking for [love / lovely] . The criminals pose as potential partners and contact people seeking [romance / romantic] on dating sites. After a period of correspondence, they start asking their victim for money. They use many [difference / different] kinds of excuses and reasons why they need money.

The police [force / forced] in London reported 3,900 people being scammed online in 2016. The average [amount / volume] of money they lost was $12,500. The average age of the victims was 59 years [age / old] . More women than men [were / was] scammed, with 61 per cent of the victims [been / being] female. A senior police officer described the damage the scams [have / do] to victims. He said: "These crimes destroy lives and the [emotional / emoticon] damage often [far / for] outweighs the financial loss. He advised people against giving strangers money. He said: "Never give money to people you meet online, [no / not] matter what emotional sob story the person uses." He added that to be safe, people should always be [in / on] their guard when communicating with a stranger online.