Lonely people enter these sites looking for love, but instead, they get scammed. Cryptocurrency scams are taking over dating apps to fool unsuspecting users.
Falling in love through the internet is now taking on a whole new dimension due to lonely hearts searching for a soulmate becoming the main targets of crypto scammers. In what appears to be the latest series of crypto scams. Scammers would target unsuspecting users of online dating apps as their victims.
The Bitcoin fraud scheme is acquiring popularity in Japan, where several local media have reported scams of this type in recent months. This week the recent case of a woman “in her 30s” who got deceived by a man, with whom she had a cyber-relationship, to invest in digital currencies.
Claiming to be a successful overseas cryptocurrency trader, the scammer had convinced the victim to put an investment in a fraudulent cryptocurrency platform on the promise of making hefty profits. The man and the trading website then disappeared after she invested at least $ 345,000. Yahoo! Japan covered the sad news.
Crypto Scam Spreads Across Japan Without Control
Another local media had already reported that another 50-year-old woman fell for a very similar scam. According to the report, she also had conversations with a “successful” foreign merchant, through the messaging app Line, who made her purchase at least USD 82,000 in bitcoins from a scam site.
The matter has escalated to become a potential national risk, as some agencies in Japan have started to give warning advice to users. In February, Japan’s National Center for Consumer Affairs (CNAC) launched an advisory targeting men ages 30-49 to be on the lookout for cryptocurrency scammers lurking in dating apps. The men claimed they were international experts in digital assets.
The CNAC further revealed that it was following various cases in which “women looking for someone to love” persuaded male users through dating apps to invest in crypto projects using fake platforms.
A publication of Yahoo! Japan at the beginning of the year highlighted the phenomenon is spreading throughout the entire nation. The report highlighted the particular case of a 40-year-old man who got scammed by a 20-year-old Taiwanese girl with whom he had plans to marry and who would have stolen more than USD 70,000 from him.
Scammers are Everywhere and Could be Everyone
Single people looking for romance in China have also faced similar situations. In April, Hangzhou highlighted the case of a Chinese woman who had been cheated on by her two online boyfriends simultaneously.
The resident of Zhejiang province explained that one of the subjects invited her to join a gambling union. The other man then had persuaded her to set various investments that count on more than $ 2,500 in a cryptocurrency program.
The alleged trading platform also kept his money. Although instead of disappearing, it required a new investment to withdraw its profit, something she had found false after raising the stakes and losing more than $ 10,000.
By: Jenson Nuñez
