Aaron Cohn, partner at Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, a law firm focused on financial fraud, says his practice has seen a strong increase in victims seeking help with hacked crypto accounts. Ms. Hutchinson doesn’t expect to get her money back, but she hopes that other people will be more cautious about strangers who promise to help them invest in cryptocurrency. Then — when the money appeared on ICAC’s website — she sent more. “I want to teach you to invest in cryptocurrency when you are free, bring some changes to your life and bring an extra income to your life,” he texted her, according to a screenshot of the exchange. So when the man, who went by the name Ze Zhao, told Ms. Vu, who works in customer service for a security company, that he could help her make money by trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, she was intrigued. But some scammers are too clued up to use real people’s photos.
The horror stories of courtship-based schemes increasingly involve crypto. The man encouraged her to create an account on Crypto.com and instructed her to transfer funds to a link he claimed was a cryptocurrency exchange platform; instead, the money went into his pockets. While the FBI began warning about Internet romance rackets as early 2005, the rise of cryptocurrency has made it even easier to scam money instantly, across borders, and without detection.
CNC Intelligence has recently been made aware of a number of cryptocurrency scams. These scams involve fraudsters misleading investors into buying fake or worthless cryptocurrencies. In some cases, the scammers have even created their own phony cryptocurrencies.
If the other person seems overly eager to get you to use a specific cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. Talking about any financial success, most people do not speak about or flaunt extravagant lifestyles to people they have just met. “Since a lot of the perpetrators of crypto scams are outside of the U.S., our law enforcement institutions can only do so much,” Cummings says. The goal is always to manipulate victims into divulging personal data or transferring valuable digital assets like non-fungible tokens to the perpetrator’s account. Crypto scams are like any other financial scam, except the scammers are after your crypto assets rather than your cash.
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Bank transfer scammers steal £700,000 a day from UK victims
Dating apps are a fun way to meet people and connect with others; however, you must protect your privacy. There are tons of malicious people who use dating apps to take advantage of vulnerable people who are seeking connections. Fake profiles are a very common scam in the online dating world. Any person can create a fake dating profile and then use this to garner sympathy from their would-be victims before they strike.
This accounts for a 37% increase from 2021 during the same period. It would be best to be cautious about what links or services people promote on the app. Cybercriminals are only getting better with their malicious viruses. For months, Francis still believed David was coming to America to be with her, until he asked for another $250,000 to get out of his military contract. When she told him she didn’t have that kind of money, he suggested she obtain a loan against her house to acquire the funds. “When I talked to him and he was willing to let me sell my home, yeah, okay, that’s it.
“Many people who’ve experienced scams report being contacted on dating apps,” a February FTC report said, adding that almost one-third of online romance scams reported last year began sexfinder on Facebook or Instagram. Your accounts or benefits are frozen as part of an investigation. They tell you to solve the problem or protect your money by buying cryptocurrency.
Year after year, romance scams result in one of the highest reported financial losses when compared to other Internet-facilitated crimes. According to a preliminary report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center , a total of 19,050 victims reported losing $739,030,292 to romance scammers in 2022. In Florida, 1,475 victims reported losing a total of $53,412,471, and in North Florida 387 victims reported losing a total of $15,004,250.
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They’ll use messages or pop-ups to claim there’s a problem with your accounts, or a security breach, and the only way to “protect” yourself is to put your money in crypto. As for Mike, he doubts he will recover the hundreds of thousands he lost to bogus investments, but said he reported his case to the AARP, the FTC, the FBI and HSI and wants to see someone held accountable. “You’ll see earnings; you’ll even be able to withdraw some money at some point.