US dating app users were robbed of $ 500 million worth of cryptocurrency

Love-seekers in Silicon Valley have fallen victim to a wave of cryptocurrency fraud via a dating app.

This scheme for stealing cryptocurrency has been known for a long time. Criminals find a potential victim in an app or on a social network, get to know them, and then move the conversation to encrypted messaging services (such as WhatsApp, for example). The scammers can spend months in daily conversations to build a fake relationship with a gullible person looking for love. The ultimate goal is to force the victim to invest in cryptocurrency through a duplicate version of a real website or by transferring funds to a cryptocurrency wallet.

This type of fraud first emerged in China at the end of 2019, but has become the most common in the United States. In 2021, according to the FBI, almost $ 500 million was stolen from dating app users through «crypto romance». Strangely enough, even IT workers are getting hooked by scammers.

The San Francisco Examiner report describes two cases of fraud, the victims of which lost a total of $ 2.5 million. In the first case, a Bay Area IT manager lost about 1.3 million as a result of a «relationship» on Linkedin. According to the woman, her technological education played a cruel joke on her. The manager fell for the scammer’s professional profile, which stated that he graduated from the same university. After «getting to know each other,» the conversation moved to WhatsApp, and the attacker was able to convince the woman to invest in cryptocurrency through a dubious website in a month.

The other victim is a real estate analyst who lost $ 1.2 million in two months and ended up in a psychiatric hospital after having suicidal thoughts.

Both victims are now members of an online support group set up by the Global Anti-Fraud Organization. The group is replenished with at least 2−3 new members every week. The organization believes that Silicon Valley workers fall victim to these scams due to overconfidence in their technical background, loneliness as a result of the pandemic, and interest in cryptocurrencies.

And while in most cases the fraudsters never meet the victim in person, some criminals have gone even further. In the UK, the robber Kareem Hassan met potential victims on Snapchat and then lured them to a meeting. At the time of the meeting, the criminal used physical force and threats to extort cryptocurrency owners for their assets.

Earlier, members of the NFT community had the opportunity to look for their soulmate through the Lonely Ape Dating Club app. However, the crypto dating club operated for only 3 months and closed due to the lack of female audience.