By Victor Trammell
On a dating app, a 24-year-old woman said she was defrauded out of her family’s life savings.
According to CBS News, Nicole Hutchinson (pictured) met a male calling himself Hao on the Hinge dating app. He offered to educate her about cryptocurrencies. However, that did not happen at all, according to Hutchinson.
In the beginning, Hao urged her to sign up for a “cryptocurrency trading platform” on Crypto.com, which she did, and then provided her a link to deposit money there.
After the death of her mother, Hutchinson and her father had recently sold the family’s home, and each earned $280,000. Having received the money, Hutchinson utilized it to go to California and begin a new life. She also invested a portion of the funds in accordance with Hao’s instructions.
As she saw the money rise, Hutchinson persuaded her father to join her in the investment. When Hutchinson tried to withdraw what seemed to be $1.2 million but was told she had to pay $380,000 in “taxes,” she suspected something was amiss. Hao had her register a cryptocurrency account.
However, the URLs she was directed to send money to be for accounts belonging to criminals, not legal digital wallets. The fraudster had gotten his hands on all the investors’ money. After losing $390,000, the Hutchinsons are now living in an RV. Crypto.com cautions customers to check the legitimacy of any accounts they move money into.
CBS News reported that Hinge has trained content moderators who are trained to check for signs of fraud.