ACCC said Australians have lost over $3 million in romantic scams

Criminal syndicates are matching with Australians on dating apps and are developing close and personal relationships with them before disappearing with thousands of dollars.

Cyber security expert Adrianus Warmenhoven said the term itself was quite literal: "The scammer gains the trust of their victim (the pig) and lures them into a complex scam (fattens it up) before taking the victim's money (the butchering)," he said.

ACCC Scamwatch data reported in May alone that Australians had lost $3.2 million in dating and romance scams with females accounting for 73 per cent of the misappropriated funds.

Mobile applications were the most common delivery method for dating and romance scams, followed by social networking and email.

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Mr Warmenhoven said the social engineering scam was highly effective because of the lack of emotional connections in a digitised world.

"This is actually the only scam at the moment that I know where scammers make an effort of having a personal connection with you," he said.

"We see that this makes a real difference in a digital world where people don't have a lot of emotional contact. People are really thirsty for real interactions with people."

Once the scammer builds trust with the victim they will encourage them to make investments into fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms, Mr Warmenhoven said.

Proofpoint senior director Adrian Covich said it was very uncommon for financial institutions to ask for bank details.

"Always be wary when you're speaking to people, if you are ever asked for bank details it's smart practice to discontinue the call," he said.

When talking to strangers online Mr Warmenhoven said there were several red flags. They include the online partner talking about their wealth and rushing to get you to invest in a crypto investment platform, Mr Warmenhoven said.

"Don't trust anybody. This is hard especially when you're on a dating app and your goal is romance," he said.