A woman lost $300,000 in Cryptocurrency scam: Here's everything we know

Cryptocurrency scams are currently on rise. Several cases of crypto fraud have been reported online. Just recently, a trader from Ahmedabad was duped of Rs 1.25 lakh as he was lured into investing in cryptocurrency with a promise that the individual would get double returns. Over 2,000 cryptocurrency investors were also reportedly duped of Rs 40 crore. Now, a woman has lost $3,00,000 after a scammer tricked her into investing in crypto.

Niki Hutchinson, a 24-year-old social media producer from Tennessee, had downloaded a dating app called Hinge. Through this app, she met a man named Hao. They both exchanged messages for more than a month, after which she became the latest victim of fraud.

He first gained her trust and then encouraged her to invest in cryptocurrency once he got to know that she inherited nearly $300,000 from the sale of her childhood home after her mother’s death. According to the screenshot shared by the New York Times, the scammer had said that he wants to teach her to invest in cryptocurrency, which he said would “bring extra income.”

Later, she agreed and sent a small amount of crypto to a wallet address he had provided her. The scammer conned her by saying that the account she was sending money to was affiliated with a crypto exchange called ICAC. When she noticed that the money appeared on this website, she started investing more with the help of Hao, as she was surprised by the fact that how easy it is to quickly make money. She later also used her entire savings on the crypto-trading platform.

In December 2021, Hutchinson got suspicious when she was not able to withdraw money from her account. A customer service agent for ICAC told her that the account was frozen and that she first needed to pay thousands of dollars in taxes. Hao then disappeared, as per the report published by NYT. She is currently working with the local Florida police to track down the scammer.

Hutchinson asserted that she is not expecting to get her money back, but she wants people to be cautious if someone says that they can help them invest in cryptocurrency. “You hear all these stories about people becoming millionaires. It just felt like, oh, well, cryptocurrency’s the new trend, and I need to get in,” she told NYT.