Shocking Tinder scam: Man lost Rs. 20 lakh in cryptocurrency; Don’t fall for This

tech.hindustantimes.com:

In a shocking Tinder scam, a US individual lost $277,000 or around Rs. 20 lakh worth cryptocurrency to a scammer who pretended to be his lover. Pulling a classic case of romance scam, this scammer trapped the victim on the Tinder app and won his trust before stealing all his money. It all began when Mike matched with a woman named Jenny from Malaysia on the dating app. After exchanging some messages, the conversation moved to WhatsApp and the two began talking for long hours. It was a smooth sailing ride till the scammer brought up Bitcoin.

The incident which eventually resulted in the victim losing almost the entirety of his life savings, was first reported by NBC News. “She started telling me about her uncle who worked for J.P. Morgan…he was the world expert in Bitcoin options,” Mike told NBC News. He added, “ I wasn’t look[ing] to invest in cryptocurrency. I was looking for somebody to have some fun with, you know, ‘Let’s go hiking, let’s go have dinner”.

Interestingly, despite growing close to each other, the two had never met. The scammer, who went by the name Jenny, claimed to live in Malaysia and Mike was living in the USA. But regardless, Jenny was able to convince him into investing in cryptocurrency. Initially the victim bought Bitcoin worth $3,000 from a legitimate website. Then she persuaded him to transfer the crypto to a different platform, which was a fake website designed to steal from the depositor. As the Tinder scam progressed, Mike kept investing more and more cryptocurrency into that account.

“She would get me excited and say, ‘Mike, so you got to send more money. The more you have in here, the more you can make,” said Mike. Four months later, Mike had spent upwards of Rs. 20 lakh. Mike began growing