After dating an app match, a 57-year-old retired cop lost $15,000 in a cryptocurrency scam.

It’s nearly impossible to argue there’s still a sector left where cryptocurrency hasn’t made an impact on, yet with widespread usage comes an increase in the number of scams.

Also Read: How to avoid scams in the crypto industry?

Dating apps are one method that people become victims of a crypto scam. According to the Federal Trade Commission, around 20% of the money lost in romance scams from October 2020 to March 2021 was transferred in bitcoin.

Jenkins, a 57-year-old retired cop from outside Atlantic City, had to learn the hard way how to steer clear of crypto scams. Jenkins, a retired cop from outside Atlantic City, recently lost $15,000 in bitcoin in a months-long fraud. He was duped by a lady named “Alice,” whom he met on the dating app Hinge in September, who conned him for months.

After meeting on WhatsApp, the two began speaking, and it took about a month for them to get to know each other before Alice mentioned a cryptocurrency investment.

She specifically addressed a practice known as liquidity mining, in which cryptocurrency owners lend their assets to others.

Alice explained how the system worked by demonstrating how the revenues from a low-cost…mining certificate… might result in massive gains. She advised PJ to utilise the Coinbase Wallet.

After a month of speaking, Alice was able to persuade a sceptical PJ to invest $4,000 in Tether, a stablecoin.

PJ then invested the money in a liquidity mining service that Alice had recommended. He gradually increased his investment till he achieved a total of $15,000.

Liquidity mining is a method of earning incentives by lending crypto assets to a decentralised exchange. These benefits are frequently derived from trading fees incurred by traders swapping tokens.

It was all a ruse to get her to click on a link that gave her access to his whole bank account.

PJ contacted Coinbase and Tether to report her, but because he virtually turned his money over to Alice, they said they couldn’t help him.

Sun reached out to Tether and Coinbase for comment.

Jenkins explained, “Security is my speciality.” He believes it can happen to anyone if it happened to him.

Mike, who is retired and single, had a similar incident in which he lost about $300,000 to a phoney internet affair. Mike was looking for nearby companionship when he downloaded the dating app Tinder.

However, in July, he paired with a Malaysian woman named “Jenny” and began chatting with her on the dating platform and subsequently on WhatsApp, a messaging programme. After a month or so of talking about their lives and travelling together, Jenny switched the subject to Bitcoin.

“She started telling me about her uncle who worked for J.P. Morgan… he was the world authority in Bitcoin options,” Mike, who requested that his last name not be used to preserve his privacy

. He had no intention of investing in cryptocurrency.” “Let’s go hiking, let’s go have dinner,” he was looking for someone with whom he could have some fun.

Jenny encouraged him to put $3,000 into crypto.com, a respectable cryptocurrency exchange website. Mike said she then persuaded him to transfer the money to a new site. “She’d get me all worked up and say, ‘Mike, you need to send more money.’ The more people you have in here, the more money you’ll be able to make.'”

Devon, his own “teacher analyst,” was assigned to him when his cryptocurrency portfolio reached $1 million in worth.

Mike became concerned after Jenny and Devon urged him to make his tax payments to the Department of Homeland Security rather than the IRS after four months.

He attempted to withdraw funds from his account but was unable to do so. Except for his massive losses, he understood nothing was ever genuine – neither his gains nor his love interest”Jenny.”

Mike responded, “I spent roughly $277,000.”

u/Probably_notabot says it is sad how Mike got scammed when he was looking for a good time.