The Independent: Here's how one victim was swindled out of $58,000 in a cryptocurrency scam
Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation reporting that Americans were defrauded out of $5.6bn last year — and that the victims are often educated, well-off people.
Last October, 68-year-old Debbie Fox had just finished “dreamy trips” to Italy, Spain and Greece. So when a man named Russell told her he was considering retiring to Europe, Fox was excited about exploring a relationship and possibly settling there with him.
The two met on Luxy – which advertises itself as an elite dating platform for millionaires – and would spend hours discussing books, movies, television, and their families. “Russell” advertised himself as a scientist and businessman with dual passports, “a man of affluence” who was looking for a deeper connection.
“By day three, we were video chatting at length,” Fox said. “There was no way he could be reading from a script, because there is no way that a script would know what I would be asking him. I have a tendency to go really deep on conversations, and he just kept pace. It felt really real.”
Then he called her with an emergency: he needed $48,000 to save a solar project in Saudi Arabia that had purportedly been interrupted by the Israel-Hamas war.