According to data from the government, West Mercia Police are the second highest force in the UK who have seen the highest numbers of scams over the last few years.

They have dealt with more than 9,000 reports of online scams from October 2015 to September 2017.

To help arm consumers with information on the scams to be most wary of, TalkTalk Telecom Group has worked with Action Fraud to identify the most common online scams.

Online shopping and auctions is the most popular with 4,436 cases. Shopping and online auction fraud is where a product is either misrepresented online or not delivered having been purchased through an internet auction site. Or if scammers accept an electronic payment but the goods do not arrive, and then the sites are found to be bogus and untraceable. TalkTalk says if it's too good to be true it normally is, they advise to look at reviews across a number of sources including Trustpilot.

There were 3,332 cases regarding computer software service fraud. This is when someone cold calls from various 'tech support' teams claiming the victims computer has a bug. The scammer will ask to remotely access the computer to fix it at a charge or simply ask for credit card information to ‘validate the software’. The caller will claim to have fixed a bug that didn’t exist while charging the victim a fee. Most reputable firms will not ask for payment when calling you and TalkTalk says to hang up and call back on the customer service number which is normally provided on the company's website.

A total of 771 people were targeted through email and social media hacks, this is when someone gains unpermitted access to your account. It is important to create a strong password by choosing three random words or adding numbers and symbols.

And finally, 318 cases were from personal computer hacks and 186 were extortion, when some gains personal photos and demands money.

Donna Moore, head of scam prevention at TalkTalk said: “Scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated crimes that affect the whole country on an unprecedented scale.

“As an internet service provider, we feel it is our responsibility to ensure that the public are armed with the knowledge that may help them identify a scam and therefore not fall victim themselves.

“We launched our Beat the Scammers education and awareness campaign in 2016 and have continuously improved our service, encouraging our customers to activate our protection tools, completely free of charge. Such tools include CallSafe, which provides customers with a simple way to avoid unwanted calls and enhance their call security. Furthermore, we’re proactively blocking more than 700 million unwanted calls a year, and we continue to safeguard customers with the TalkTalk Nevers - a set of guidelines outlining information we will never ask customers for.

“In addition to this, we regularly work alongside organisations such as Action Fraud to prevent our customers, and the wider public from being targeted by scammers.”