Another scam involved the victim meeting a "well known" public figure online through the social networking site Facebook.
Over time the victim develops romantic feelings for the man, but he says they cannot meet due to his "marital issues".
"He says this affects his cash flow as his wife has frozen his accounts and he requests a large amount of cash from the victim, which she pays. The 'well known' figure then stops communicating with the victim," Mr Pascoe said.
"She starts to pursue the real person to get her money back, including threatening to go to the media, only to discover the 'well known person' is not on Facebook and the page is being operated by a fraudster."