His lies cost four women £300,000. And he's just the tip of the iceberg

A total of 15,623 people from Greater Manchester were victims of fraud in the last year. The incidents were logged with Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, managed by the City of London Police.

The most common category of fraud recorded was ‘Online Shopping and Auction’ fraud, which refers to the non-delivery of products bought by a consumer, or the misrepresentation of a product. Of these there were 3,100 instances.

The second most common was ‘Other Advance Fee Fraud' for which 1,500 incidents were reported. The third highest 0f 1,200 was ‘Cheque, Plastic Cards, and Online Bank Account’ which refers to cases where criminals pretend to be someone with authority asking individuals to use their credit cards, debit cards, repayment cards, store cards, and cheques that are linked to a bank account, ultimately resulting in a loss for the individual.

READ MORE: Heartbreaking tributes paid to 'incredible' mum who went 'above and beyond'

Last year Stockport was highlighted as a ‘hotspot’ for romance fraud. Working with the City of London Police, GMP conducted targeted prevention advice in locations across Stockport, such as supermarkets and shopping centres, and created a social media campaign to increase awareness of this type of offence. As a result romance fraud in Stockport fell by a third.

One romance fraud victim in Greater Manchester was manipulated into sending £9200 to fraudsters. GMP have supported the victim in getting a full refund from her bank.

Analysis carried out by QR Code Generator QRFY, looked at data from Action Fraud and the Office for National Statistics to uncover how many reports each police force had in England and Wales, over the past 13 months - and the most