A few weeks ago, I shared a post here in the community about Identifying Crypto Scams & Their Red Flags and I stated five scams and a lot of red flags to look out for. One of the scams I mentioned is one called "Crypto Romance Scam".
In this post, I'll be focusing on this scam as it is one I've encountered once before but somehow I was able to figure it out early enough to not fall for the scam. It is a kind of scam that has been there since the 1990s when online dating was advertised and social media platforms were being flooded to promote it.
While there are real love cases in the online dating world, scammers have taken advantage of this to scam people using love as a promise. There are things we need to know about this new evolution of scheme and the signs there to know you're being manipulated with love by a thief.
What is a cryptocurrency romance scam?
A Crypto-romance scam is an online scheme where a fraudster forges relationships on social media to trick people into losing their crypto assets.
In a more simpler explanation of what this scam is like, I'll share more light on it.
It's a situation where a scammer comes as a love prospect, sends friend requests and starts conversations on social media platforms or dating apps. He goes on to spend time with their target for a few days, weeks, and if he is patient enough, he goes on for months of communicating. Then after he must have perceived the target falling for him, the scammer uses the manufactured romantic bond to guilt their target into sending cryptocurrency.
How do they guilt their target?
The scammer will make up sad stories that always end up with asking for crypto money help which their target will find hard to not believe. They may ask for a few hundred to thousands of dollars’ worth of crypto. Once they get the money, some would stay to take more from the same target while some would move on to the next target.
A personal experience would teach more.
I had this friend who would always talk so much about crypto to me and how he is growing his portfolio little by little, he also warned that crypto is no small child's game that one has got to be very wise in safe guarding their assets. I started to buy and keep a few cents of crypto for a start with his guidance and he made sure to alert me on any recent update he came across.
I'm guessing having some crypto in my name drew this scammer to my DM, I still don't know how I got him on my friend's list but I can still remember well how we started to spend time on dm chatting away. The signs were there but I continued since I didn't have much to give anyways and I wanted to see how it goes.
One of the major sign that confirmed my suspicion was his silly excuses every time I wanted us to have a voice call, not even a video call. He didn't want his voice to be heard and I knew he was up to no good in my DM. I played along until he started to ask for literally any kind of money with me giving same response, "I don't have it" and he got tired, stopped chatting and went away.
I told my friend about it and he confirmed to me that they are a lot of people like that and he even fell for one but didn't lose much to the scam. And now, I am here sharing again, that Crypto-romance scam is out there for us to be wary of.
How do one identify a Crypto-romance scam?
From my studies and personal experience, there are three main tell tale signs to figure out that you're in a Crypto-romance scam. So if you encounter any, it's best to ask questions, the kind of questions to reveal their true nature or get them running away from you before they even continue with their scheme.
When the relationship is moving too fast: Even in the real world, we don't feel to comfortable with a fast moving relationship as we tend to think there are hidden motives, it is same with crypto-romance scams. You'll see them professing love as soon as they start chatting with you, others may use really captivating words (AI is helping this more now) to get you into believing they are real and for you. Be wary of these kind of online chats, they may not be real.
When there is refusal to meet in person or video calls: I had this one on a personal level, he kept rejecting normal voice calls with every excuse he could think of. This is one obvious sign that it is a leading to a scam. They even use fake photos and stories on their profile to make you believe they are what they portray themselves to be. But then, the refusal to meet in person of video calls should be more than enough to keep your heart in check.
When there is too much focus on your crypto assets and future: No, the focus is never direct but you could tell it is all to get some money from you. They keep sharing sad stories about themselves or how their family member is in a lot of troubles or their pets having some issues. They make their target feel bad and want to offer help by sending some crypto. To kill suspicion, they are overly thankful and make promises to not ask again which they never keep to if you let them stick around.
With these signs, it is best to keep your heart in check and stay away from such people. It will save you from the emotional stress of being heart broken or losing too much of your assets. It's a side effect of being crypto digital, let's stay alert!
