A New Zealand internet safety group has found older women looking for love are more prone to being scammed over the internet.



NetSafe today said New Zealanders have reported losing more than $750,000 from online incidents in the past year through its Online Reporting Button website.



The site was set up 12 months ago in conjunction with police and other agencies and had since received almost 1700 reports.



"More than 60 per cent of cases reported to us have been classic online scams," NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker said.



Over half of the money reported lost was by New Zealanders falling prey to romance scams, which counted for the largest individual losses, phishing attacks and advance fee fraud.



The romance scams were understood to have been of particular concern to police's National Cyber Crime Centre as they have sometimes involved vulnerable people being defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars.



Cocker said lonely older women who were less familiar with technology were more likely to fall for the romance scam.



"I think younger people are quite aware of how easy it is to be [someone] else when you are online and therefore more sceptical of what they see."



He said the women were lured in with promises of love, and the scammers would then go through the same activities as any online dating couple.



"The scammers aren't running one relationship at a time. They are running multiple relationships, but the victims are not aware of that at all."



Cocker said scammers take their time to develop a relationship before asking for money to be transferred through companies such as Western Union for travel or an emergency.



NetSafe were not aware of where the scammers were based, but Cocker said they tend to be in countries were law enforcement was inadequate.



"Unfortunately, a very high percentage of the things that are reported to us, there is no practical action that can be taken either to recover the money or to prosecute the scammer."



Most reports were submitted by people living in Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington, but there had been incidents reported in every part of the country, particularly with cold calling "computer experts" looking to gain access to computers.



The cold-calling scams were known to be run by companies in India on a huge scale, but the Indian High Commission in Wellington has refused comment on whether Indian authorities are aware or investigating.



Cocker said there was still a stigma around scams and he hoped the NetSafe's figures would encourage more people to report incidents.



"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's just the unfortunate reality of operating online."



NetSafe said there had been some trends:



- During the last four months of 2010 the main issues were "advanced fee" frauds targeting car sellers and rental scams affecting landlords and tenants.

- Later there was a rise in people reporting cold calls from computer support companies, which continued on into 2011.

- The next most common incidents reported were hacked email accounts being used to send spam and to request emergency funds from friends, phishing attacks on people using online banking plus, fake Inland Revenue and bank fee refund offers.

- Stuff, with Tom Pullar-Strecker, Paloma Migone and Laura Westbrook