The dating platforms Tinder and Co. are not only full of bad dates, but also real criminals. This is what Natalie F. had to find out when she left her savings to a crook.
As the New York Post reports, Natalie F., a 42-year-old single mother from Windsford, Cheshire, fell victim to a sophisticated crypto scam on dating platform Tinder that cost her her entire savings. She lost a total of 7,500 dollars (around 6,900 euros) to a stranger who introduced himself as “James”.
According to the New York Post, Natalie had developed an emotional bond with “James” before he started talking intensely about cryptocurrencies. He convinced her to open a crypto wallet and load money into it. He convinced her she would make big profits.
After initial investments that supposedly resulted in small profits, Natalie was encouraged to invest increasingly larger sums. When she finally invested her entire savings, an amount of $86,000 briefly appeared in her account, but then quickly fell to zero.
The scam was finally exposed when Natalie was asked to make a large tax payment to the New York Bank, whereupon “James” suddenly disappeared. The fraudster, who had hurt Natalie badly, remained unrecognized and left behind only ridicule and scorn. He even told her to “just die”.
In retrospect, Natalie told the New York Post, the warning signs were clear. For example, “James” claimed to be German, but spoke without an accent and couldn’t even remember the names of his own dogs. Natalie has now filed a complaint and hired a lawyer in the hope of getting her lost money back.
Online dating has been extremely popular among scammers for years. A lot of money is often stolen with love scams, so you should be careful when using the internet. This is also what Tim Berghoff, Security Evangelist at G Data, says. Accordingly, you should, among other things, check the name of the person you are writing to. The security expert also recommends not sending payments or official documents.
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