Think your last failed relationship was the worst? A recently divorced mom of three can beat it, after she was swindled out of her entire 401(k) by a scammer she met on Tinder. Rebecca Holloway was getting out of a messy second marriage when she met a man on the dating app who was posing as a French entrepreneur named âFredâ and he convinced her to invest in bogus cryptocurrency schemes.
She says he started off sending her consistent and attentive messages and she felt they had a special connection because he claimed to be a parent of three, just like her. While Holloway says he barely made himself visible on their video calls, she trusted him enough to listen when he advised her to start transferring money to a crypto platform. It started with small amounts and she actually made money at first, so he eventually convinced her to invest all of her retirement funds - $100-thousand.
The scam is whatâs known as a âpig butcheringâ scheme, a months-long scam to âfatten upâ victims with a fake romance before âbutcheringâ with fake investment advice. It targets lonely people and Holloway says looking back, she sees the signs as obvious, but at the time, she absolutely believed âFred.â It wasnât until she was telling a friend about him that she figured out the truth and then it was too late. âIt felt like a movie where suddenly everything around me blurred and became distorted,â she explains. âI didnât even try to withdraw my money, I knew at that point it was gone.â
Source:Â NY Post
Scott's Thoughts:
- It never hurts to be reminded that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!
- I don't understand how anybody in this computer age could fall for this!
- Whatâs the worst dating app experience youâve had? Has anyone ever tried to swindle you?