First of all, to gain the trust of an online dater, these cybercriminals can spend months relying on the lure of romance and fast crypto returns.
Scammers will typically do the following:
- meet their victims on popular dating apps, then
- switch the conversation to WhatsApp,
- bombard victims with frivolous messages, and finally
- switch the conversation to cryptocurrency.
From here, the scammer first helps the victim purchase cryptocurrency on a legitimate site such as Coinbase, but then instructs them to transfer to a fake cryptocurrency exchange.
Once the victim realizes that they cannot withdraw their funds or that the scammer has run out on them, the scammer simply disappears.
Beware of these pig butchering scams!!
