Tho Vu is light years away from thinking about it when she discovers Ze Zhao on a dating app.he rushes for a scam. At first, the conversation starts normally but very quickly, the suitor starts talking to him about cryptocurrencies. “I am a curious person and was actually very knowledgeable about the whole negotiation process”says.
Ze Zhao promises him mountains and wonders by reassuring him that he can help make money by getting him to invest in Bitcoin. In just a few weeks, Tho Vu transferred him elsewhere. 264.000 €. To him, the shopping site looked like an editor. He acted with the encouragement and attention of his touch. stealing all their personal savings.
Cryptocurrency scams on dating apps have doubled in a year
Of course, Ze Zhao never reported again. Tho Vu was the victim of one of them. numerous cryptocurrency scams who are currently bothering dating apps. A few months ago, we talked about this Grinder user who had 23,000 Euros stolen in the same transaction. Today, that seems to be the plan. transferred to other platforms.
In total, the US Federal Trade Commission has identified 56,000 scams of this kind in 2021. In total, casualties are estimated. 122 million eurostwice that of last year. “People are feeling lonely because of the pandemic and cryptocurrencies are very trendy right now”Says Jane Lee, a researcher at online fraud prevention company Sift. “The combination of the two made this scam really successful”.
According to data from the Global Anti-Scam Organization, scammers primarily young women with higher education, especially on Tinder, Bumble or Hinge. Shortly after they start chatting, they try to take their victims to WhatsApp, where end-to-end encryption allows them to remain anonymous.
Source: New York Times
