Investment scams  have now overtaken dating and romance scams as the category with the biggest financial loss to victims.

Six investment scam victims lost more than $1 million each in 2015, according to a new scams report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

"The low interest rate environment has led to those semi-retired or retired searching for investments with higher returns, and scammers are preying on them," said Delia Rickard, deputy chair of the ACCC.

"A lot of these offers aren't that much higher to be 'too good to be true', so they think it's a good option."

Investment and love scams only accounted for 3.7 per cent of the 105,200 scams reported to the ACCC. But the two also accounted for more than half the $84.9 million of total losses.

Combining the ACCC data with that of the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network, total scam losses hit $229 million in 2015.

The true figure is expected be much larger because victims are often embarrassed to report their case to authorities.

"While the number of reports we received are spread across all age groups, it is middle aged and older Australians who are reporting the highest losses," said Ms Rickard.

"This Fraud Week, the ACCC is ... encouraging older Australians to wise up and watch out for scams that target them so they don't have their hard earned savings stolen."

Dating and romance scams netted scammers nearly $23 million, 20 per cent down on the previous year's figure.

One of the targets was Ruth Robertson, a 64-year-old artist from Buninyong in Victoria, who realised she was in a twisted love scam when the fraudster demanded she strap $200,000 onto her body and fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

She met "Jeff Thomas" who purported to be an Australian construction engineer on dating website Be2.com.au in August, after her marriage of 25 years broke down.

By October, she had transferred $25,000 overseas. He also asked for the deed of her cottage.

"His declaration of love was relentless, calling and emailing me day and night, but I never saw his face or met him in person," she said.

"I look back now and bang my head against the wall. But I became vulnerable and I was dealing with a psychopath saying all the right things."

She considers herself one of the lucky ones who can now warn others about the predators.

"If you meet them online and they try to take it offline quickly that's one warning, and the other thing is they start to invest in feelings very quickly, it's relentless," she said.

Reflecting Ms Robertson's experience, the ACCC data shows the average reported loss from a dating and romance scam was just under $26,000.

Of the 886 romance scam victims who lost money, 153 said they lost between $10,000 to $100,000, and 53 lost more than $100,000.

Ms Rickard said scammers were becoming more sophisticated, settling up call centres overseas to reach large number of people in wealthy countries such as Australia.

"They're also getting increasingly timely and clever in how they morph their scams to reflect current issues, immediately reacting to the carbon tax, the Malaysian airline disaster and in the investment scam space, the low interest rate environment," she said.

Protect Yourself From Investment Scammers

• Investigate what you have been told and independently check the bona fides of those you are dealing with.
• Do not respond to emails and phone calls from strangers offering predictions on shares, investment tips, or investment advice.
• Always do your own research before you invest any money and check the company or scheme is licensed on ASIC's MoneySmart website.
• If there is any doubt at all, you should seek professional financial advice from an advisor registered with ASIC.

(credit: ACCC)