Lonely Indian men are so desperate to find girlfriends they are resorting to calling random phone numbers in the hope of striking up a relationship with a potential future wife.

The 'phone Romeos' have become a scourge in India and neighbouring Bangladesh.

Julia Qermezi Huang, an anthologist at the London School of Economics, said: 'It's a new thing. It's covert, it's risky, it's experimenting with that outside world which they don't have much access to.'

Around 680 million Indians have mobile phones now and many of them are single men who have difficulty finding girlfriends FILE PHOTO

Police in the city of Lucknow have set up a special call centre to handle complaints from victims.

The New York Times reported that when 24-year-old Premsagar Tiwari was arrested by police he was found in possession of eight SIM cards and contacted more than 500 women a day.

Police constable Satyavir Sachan said of Tiwari - whose name ironically translates as Sea of Love in Hindi: 'The way he was built it didn't seem he could talk to girls.'

Tiwari, a skinny and highly strung young man, told the police: 'I have nobody. The person you love will be somewhere, there, standing last in line. You have to reach them somehow. And when you find that someone, you stop looking.'

One gang in Uttar Pradesh state has even started selling women's phone numbers, charging more for ladies who are considered 'beautiful'

The Hindustan Times reported one gang in Uttar Pradesh state had even started selling women's phone numbers to single men, with differing prices depending on their looks.

The numbers of girls considered 'beautiful' were sold for 500 rupees (£6.11) each while the details of an 'ordinary looking girl' would fetch just 50 rupees (61p).

The chat-up lines used by the men vary from the prosaic 'Can I recharge your mobile?' to the poetic 'I am talking to you, madam, but my body is shaking' and the extremely creepy 'I want to do the illegal things with you'.

Sometimes they call and say "I love you". Sometimes they call and say "I want to talk to Sonia" and I would say "I am not Sonia" and they would say "OK, can I talk to you?" Geetika Chakravarty

India has seen a mobile phone revolution in recent years with around 680 million Indians now owning phones.

The call centre in Lucknow receives around 700 calls a day.

One victim was Geetika Chakravarty, a 24-year-old make-up artist whose phone number fell into the wrong hands after she posted it on the Facebook page of a beauty salon.

She received so many calls from strangers that she had to block 200 separate numbers.

She said: 'I do not know what their mindset is. Sometimes they call and say "I love you". Sometimes they call and say "I want to talk to Sonia" and I would say "I am not Sonia" and they would say "OK, can I talk to you?"'