Crypto Romance Scam - Stay alert with your Bitcoins.

[Flexystar]

This is alarming story of a woman (age: 70) who started dating a man over the internet, and sadly ended up giving away $200,000 in BTC. This is really not good news for the crypto world. Though we stay safe in our daily routine, if it was not for the Bitcoins then she would have fell for $200K in fiat itself because she was Scammed with Crypto Romance! Though she did everything for her love, it was sadly a scam and that's the kind of world we are living in right now.

This story is from Nottingham, United Kingdom. The lady was pensioner and was dating this man via online dating site and eventually they both got involved to the point where man tricked her emotionally. He tricked her to send $200K so that he can end his contract with the current employer and he will come to her for life long togetherness.

Though this story ended up in tragedy of scam, Police were able to recover around $135,000 for her and she was at least back in a life with her savings.

The real question is, isnt this is sad to see how people are scamming each other around the world with fallen levels of kindness?

A British pensioner living in Nottinghamshire parted with $207,000 after becoming a victim of a bitcoin romance scam.

The police managed to restore some of the stolen funds and warned people to be extra vigilant with online dating due to the rise of similar frauds.

The Latest BTC Romance Scheme
The Nottinghamshire police said a woman in her 70s transferred over $200,000 to a suspicious bitcoin address belonging to an individual she was dating online. The person in question orchestrated the scheme from Nigeria, and his only goal was to steal funds from the pensioner.

The woman, whose name was not identified, started chatting with the scammer in May 2020, who introduced himself as a US Army surgeon. Their communication in the following months progressed to a relationship and switched to Google Handouts.

At one point, the wrongdoer told the woman he was in love with her and needed money to end his contract and be with her. He insisted that the only way to receive funds was if the lady transferred some to a particular bitcoin wallet, promising to pay her back in time.

She withdrew cash from her bank account and deposited the notes in BTC ATMs across Nottingham. However, the lady soon realized she had sent over $200,000 of her savings to a fraudster and not a noble surgeon who wanted to be with her.

After opening a case, the local police partnered with her bank and managed to refund her nearly $135,000. Still, she felt devastated and warned others to be extra cautious when Web dating.

Police and Crime Commissioner – Caroline Henry – highlighted the authorities’ efforts that helped the woman restore some of her drained assets. She also urged people to contact law enforcement agencies as soon as they have any doubts about such scams:

“We would also urge anyone going through a similar scenario to contact the police. Don’t be embarrassed to tell us what you are going through. We can help and support you if you are going through a rough time.”

The police further said people should not stop using dating sites but follow some essential rules, such as never accepting friend requests from individuals they don’t know. Revealing too many personal details or sending money to someone they have only met online are also to be avoided.

The Similar Case of a British Man
An anonymous UK resident parted with a significant amount of funds after a woman he was messaging on a dating website conned him. His mysterious lover, called Jia, displayed herself as a successful cryptocurrency investor with “inside knowledge” and told him to invest in bitcoin via a dubious application.

The man ended up allocating $200,000 when he saw his balance “had been cleared.” He asked Jia for an explanation, but she was reluctant to help, saying she had to fly to Australia and spend time with her sick aunt.

The desperate person realized he had become a victim of a cryptocurrency scam and admitted that if it was not for his mother, he might have committed suicide.

How This Woman Lost Over $200K in a Crypto Romance Scam

[digaran]

When sugar mommy plot goes wrong.🤣🤣, he could have  at least  give her a round before taking the cash! Lol

[cabron]

Seem common for old lonely ladies to fall for someone who becomes friendly to them online. I personally know someone's mother who sends a large amount of money to someone she knew online as well.

In this situation, the lady looks very attentive to following instructions that she managed to deposit on BTC ATM. Good for her to realize sooner. It would have ended so tragic for her if she was not thinking straight.

[Hispo]

It takes a special kind of lowlife to take advantage of the loneliness and desperation of someone on internet.
Personally, If I ever try those kinds of dates I would not mention Bitcoin whatsoever and I would go out with someone I know I can eventually meet face-to-face in my city.

Any possible "romantic partner" asking money after a relatively short interaction is a red flag bigger than the Sun, not even mentioning the fact the "surgeon" asked for Bitcoin to an elderly woman.  

[Majestic-milf]

This doesn't come as a surprise to me now as we live in a world devoid of trust. And since we are in the computer age, people take advantage of these amenities and commit atrocious acts. I wouldn't blame the lady for not seeing through the fake and scamming intentions of the guy because he probably may have looked genuine and concerned whereas he was only preying on her emotions

 Sad that she fell hook, line and sinker for the sucker but good thing too that at least she was able to recover a greater part of the funds. One just has to be careful and wary of these scammers, though.

[Nrcewker]

Hats Off To the police, that they were able to recover more than 50% of the amount for the lady. Usually in these type of scams, it’s hard to find the scammer and the money or Bitcoins were lost forever. The real question is how they were able to get the money back? And what about the rest of the Bitcoins? The scammer have sold the rest coins? Nevertheless, it proved that the scammer was a newbie, and didn’t use the mixer to mix the coins, for which i guess the police have traced him back. It’s really sad to hear about such scamming incidents. Moreover we can only warn people to be careful about these scams.

[noorman0]

In fact we often hear of a classic pattern of scams by Chinese "women" via dating apps (which actually don't have any women on the platform).
Perhaps this is one of the biggest cases of scam in this category and experienced by an old woman. I also think at any given moment like valentine's day will have their own story of deceit.

[Outhue]

This romance scam strategy has been going on for the past 20 years and many have been exposed, many programs in America teach people how to defend themselves from online fishing, but I still don't know why people are falling for romance scams again, I still remember watching one, where the old woman failed to believe that all this while she was scammed by someone pretending to be a white man, her brother exposed the culprit by talking to FBI, she was so in love with the fake white man and she has sent thousands of dollars to the culprit through Banks and Bitcoin.

[EarnOnVictor]

I don't think they need to tell adults to be careful again, as an adult, you have to be thinking with your senses and know that the internet is porous and everyone is susceptible to scams. Only preventive measure helps, which calls for anyone to be extremely careful and not do any monetary transaction with someone you don't know physically and do not trust with your money.

Romance scam has been booming for some scammers while they use fiat that was even regulated, not to talk of Bitcoin and other cryptos that are underregulated. It's good to be wise and not be a victim online.

[lovesmayfamilis]

At 70 years old, to be able to work with bitcoin wallets, and look for love, it’s scary to imagine what this granny still knows how to do. Looking at my parents, I just see that they are very simple; their pleasure lies in communicating with their grandchildren. But to trust your life to an unfamiliar dude from the Internet seems to be the height of stupidity and senile insanity. Where is this vaunted wisdom of the old? I believe that we should always rely on the mind, and if it is not available to the public, then it is necessary to make such announcements everywhere that close and confidential communication with strangers on the network not only bears mental losses, as people become stupid from communication, but also financial losses.

[yazher]

Too bad, this kind of scam has been going on and around for a long time ago and the bad thing about it right now is they are putting bitcoin's name on the front page as if it looks like it has something to do about the scam. In reality, it was used as props, and the old lady and bitcoins were the real victims here. Now, what we need to clarify to the people is the scammers are the total behind this scam and they will use all of the things out there just to steal money from the people that's why it's becoming hard to trust people nowadays, especially those whom you only know in the in social media.

[Charles-Tim]

Though we stay safe in our daily routine, if it was not for the Bitcoins then she would have fell for $200K in fiat itself because she was Scammed with Crypto Romance! Though she did everything for her love, it was sadly a scam and that's the kind of world we are living in right now.

But you know that this type of scam has started long time ago when bitcoin has never been existing not to talk of other cryptocurrencies?  This type of scam is common with fiat too.

This story is from Nottingham, United Kingdom. The lady was pensioner and was dating this man via online dating site and eventually they both got involved to the point where man tricked her emotionally. He tricked her to send $200K so that he can end his contract with the current employer and he will come to her for life long togetherness.

A person she has not seen in real life before, and she fell in love to the point she sent that huge amount of money to someone she does not know. I can feel sad for the woman, but is that not stupidity?

The real question is, isnt this is sad to see how people are scamming each other around the world with fallen levels of kindness?

That is life, especially you can see this kind of scammers from countries that the level of poverty is high, but anyone from any country can be the scammer.

[albon]

This is alarming story of a woman (age: 70) who started dating a man over the internet, and sadly ended up giving away $200,000 in BTC. This is really not good news for the crypto world. Though we stay safe in our daily routine, if it was not for the Bitcoins then she would have fell for $200K in fiat itself because she was Scammed with Crypto Romance! Though she did everything for her love, it was sadly a scam and that's the kind of world we are living in right now.

This story is from Nottingham, United Kingdom. The lady was pensioner and was dating this man via online dating site and eventually they both got involved to the point where man tricked her emotionally. He tricked her to send $200K so that he can end his contract with the current employer and he will come to her for life long togetherness.

Though this story ended up in tragedy of scam, Police were able to recover around $135,000 for her and she was at least back in a life with her savings.

The real question is, isnt this is sad to see how people are scamming each other around the world with fallen levels of kindness?

It is unfortunate to hear such sad stories, with which the scammer deceives his victim to make her feel his love and affection towards her, or that he wants to marry her in the future, and in the end, he takes advantage of this poor old woman’s love for him on these dating sites to exhaust her wealth and steal her money, and she will not refuse to give him her money and the dearest thing she owns, because unfortunately, she felt that his false love for her was genuine. 200,000 is a huge amount, I almost do not believe that it is possible for a person to sacrifice for another and give him such an amount to continue their love and finally, he scammed her. It is really unfortunate, and this story has been repeated in various parts of the world before and not only in the UK, so there is no crypto romance and dating for money, whoever asks for this really does not have sincerity in his feelings and it is good that she has recovered a large part of her stolen money and I hope that the police will catch this scammer and imprison him soon.

[Emitdama]

Honestly, this isn't really regarding crypto, sure the payment was made via crypto but the scam style has nothing to do with crypto and has been done by people all around the world for decades. It is common, usually the other way around, a "pretty girl" convinces a guy to send her some money, and that's how the scam works, it's a common one as well, and men send that money to the "pretty girl" which could be a guy all we know, because they never meet.

I am sorry but if you send someone you never meet that much money, maybe you didn't deserve that money to begin with, no person who is that stupid should have that much money.

All these "but she was 70 years old and it was her life long hard work!!" is just a way of saying she made that much money while being this stupid, so whoever paid her this much for her work lost a ton if you ask me.

[Taskford]

Too bad, this kind of scam has been going on and around for a long time ago and the bad thing about it right now is they are putting bitcoin's name on the front page as if it looks like it has something to do about the scam. In reality, it was used as props, and the old lady and bitcoins were the real victims here. Now, what we need to clarify to the people is the scammers are the total behind this scam and they will use all of the things out there just to steal money from the people that's why it's becoming hard to trust people nowadays, especially those whom you only know in the in social media.

Unfortunate to us see that there are impressions about bitcoin called as scam and we can't correct then up especially if they are closed minded and have zero knowledge about it. Maybe time will make those people who doubt to realize that bitcoin is separate on those scam methods used by scammers and accept that this is currency the same on what they are using for daily basis.

[Getmon]

Unfortunately, our world is chaotic. This is such a sad story, especially for an elderly woman who relies on her pension and savings. I am aware that the elderly have their own rights on what to do with their savings, but maybe there is a chance for their children to be informed when a significant sum is involved. Young people are susceptible to fraud so how much more when it is to older individuals. Although there are more fiat based frauds than bitcoin based frauds, this story highlights the difficulty of tracking and catching bitcoin based fraudsters.

[Saisher]

The real question is, isnt this is sad to see how people are scamming each other around the world with fallen levels of kindness?

This is not new it's been happening even in the olden days, we have to accept the fact that there are opportunists in this world, there are people who are wolves disguised as sheep, and they are good at making people believe that you can trust them, the old woman did this out of love, she thought that she finally found someone who will love her and take care of her in her old days.
This is the highest form of betrayal, you make someone fall in love with you when you only want her money.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

The real question is, isnt this is sad to see how people are scamming each other around the world with fallen levels of kindness?

Oh come on now, you must be new to the world--lonely hearts scammers have been around since the beginning of money or love, believe me.  And if you don't believe my claim, then they've been going on for at least 100 years because I read a true crime case from the 1920s (Albert Fish) who was trying to find sugar mommas before he started doing much worse things.

My point is that this elderly woman being the target of a scam because of her quest for a lover isn't evidence that the world is in a state of terminal decline.  It's not even that interesting except for the bitcoin aspect, which I assume is why it made the news.

When sugar mommy plot goes wrong.🤣🤣, he could have  at least  give her a round before taking the cash! Lol

Seriously.  Older women know what they want, and this one was probably just looking to get her nut off if she was trawling the internet for D.

[ScamViruS]

Unfortunately, our world is chaotic. This is such a sad story, especially for an elderly woman who relies on her pension and savings. I am aware that the elderly have their own rights on what to do with their savings, but maybe there is a chance for their children to be informed when a significant sum is involved. Young people are susceptible to fraud so how much more when it is to older individuals. Although there are more fiat based frauds than bitcoin based frauds, this story highlights the difficulty of tracking and catching bitcoin based fraudsters.

True. Such scammers exist not only online but also offline. And such fraud is more prevalent offline than online. It has become a news item due to the fact that Bitcoin is involved here. An old woman may have trusted this scammer a little too much and as a result of paying such a large amount of money she thought nothing of it and didn't even feel the need to inform anyone.

Basically one should not trust anyone online and do any transaction based on anyone's word.

[stompix]

Still doesn't come closer to the Roberto Cazzaniga case, when he "dated" a fake model for 15 years and spent 700k euros for that.

It's a bit different because it's an elderly woman here but romance scams have been happening in the thousands, I think we have over a few dozen cases reported here, but usually, men who are scammed for lower sums of money are not that eager to go to the police and tell their story, especially if they are married.

At 70 years old, to be able to work with bitcoin wallets, and look for love, it’s scary to imagine what this granny still knows how to do.

It was very simple for the bitcoin part, the scammer just sends the victim the QR code they have to scan at an ATM and buy coins that go directly to that address, much like paying a bill on every single of those self-service payment terminals. Probably if it would have been more complicated than that a lot of victims would have not agreed to it and seeing how the scammer insisted on that they would have got suspicious about the whole deal.