A British pensioner from Nottinghamshire was the victim of a bitcoin romance scam and lost over $200,000. 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 scammer, who introduced himself as a US Army surgeon, had been chatting with the woman in her 70s since May 2020 and eventually convinced her to transfer funds to a particular bitcoin wallet. After realizing she had been scammed, the woman contacted the police, who managed to refund her nearly $135,000.
The police urged people to contact law enforcement agencies as soon as they have any doubts about such scams and to follow some essential rules, such as never accepting friend requests from individuals they don’t know and avoiding revealing too many personal details or sending money to someone they have only met online.
Another case of a cryptocurrency scam was reported in the UK, where a man lost $200,000 after messaging with a woman called Jia on a dating website. She had presented herself as a successful cryptocurrency investor with “inside knowledge” and convinced him to invest in bitcoin via a dubious application. The man admitted that if it was not for his mother, he might have committed suicide.
