Briton lost $200,000 in BTC due to dating site scam

A romantically-focused scam left a British man with £150,000.

In 2020 a man(let's call him Tom) started a correspondence on a dating site with the charming Jia from Hong Kong. Soon their communication became close and they moved to WhatsApp.

Jia talked a lot about the future, about moving toGreat Britain and how young people could build their rich lives together. She posed as a successful crypto investor, inviting Tom to join her lifestyle.

Tom already had experience investing in bitcoin a few years ago, and kept the asset in a wallet.

Jia convinced Tom that she owns an insiderinformation that makes money. She showed Tom screenshots of her successful trades, proving that she was an experienced investor with large incomes and her own business. After much hesitation and persuasion, Tom gave up and decided to try to invest according to the proposed scheme.

Jia showed the exchange application that is neededdownload to your phone. Tom immediately became suspicious due to the fact that some functions did not work. Jia calmed him down and persuaded him to invest a small amount in bitcoins to prove the legitimacy of the site. 

The man transferred 0.1 BTC to the exchange and converted it into US dollars. To strengthen his confidence, he tried to withdraw this money, and he succeeded. 

Since the platform has made a withdrawal,as expected, he decided to increase the amount invested. Tom transferred 150,000 pounds sterling (about $200,000) in BTC to the platform. Shortly thereafter, his deposit disappeared.

Jia wrote to him that she also lost more than $1 million on the stock exchange. And then she said that she “needed to fly to Australia to take care of her sick aunt,” and disappeared.

Only then did Tom realize that he had been deceived. He contacted the police.

According to law enforcement officials, Tom is not the first victim"romantic fraud". Scammers use dating sites to build trust and then manipulate victims into transferring funds to fake sites. In the United States, 1,800 such complaints were recorded in the first half of 2021 alone. In total, about $133.4 million was stolen in this way during the year. 

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