On the most romantic day of the year, gardaí warn people to be wary of heartless scammers

An Garda Síochána has urged people to be cautious with new relationships and have listed some of the tell-tale signs that something is amiss with people one meets online.

A pensioner duped out of more than €100,000 is just one of 74 victims of romance fraud identified by gardaí last year.

Some €1.9m was lost in all through such crimes, with the true scale of the problem likely to be far greater as gardaí believe many victims do not come forward afterwards.