Image copyrightMatch.com

Malicious adverts have been found on the UK version of the Match.com dating website.

Anyone caught out by the booby-trapped ads could fall victim to ransomware, said security company Malwarebytes, which spotted the cyber-threat.

The malicious ads were appearing on pages of the dating site via an ad network that pipes content to Match and many other places.

Match said it knew about the ads and was working to clean up its feed.

"We take the security of our members very seriously indeed," it said in a statement. "We are currently investigating this alleged issue."

The attack works by redirecting people who click on one of the adverts through a series of links to a site that is seeded with code that checks to see if a visitor is running outdated versions of widely used software.

Bugs in the versions of Flash, Java, Adobe Reader and Silverlight used in browsers were all being exploited by the malicious code, said Malwarebytes.

Once a machine was compromised it could be hit by one of several different attacks, it said.

These could include falling victim to a virus that encrypts data. It is only decrypted if a victim pays a ransom of several hundred dollars or euros.

Another attack involves a trojan that tries to steal login names and passwords for online bank accounts.

Malwarebytes said it was not yet clear how many people had fallen victim to the malicious adverts, because the booby-trapped ads were served via a network that provided content to lots of different sites.

"We're seeing these types of attacks happen more and more," said a spokesman for the company.

"Companies should always have effective measures in place to monitor for these malicious ads."

Match.com's sister site Plenty of Fish was hit by a similar ad-based attack in late August.