A single mother of three lost her life's savings, $7,500, to a crypto scammer on Tinder.
Natalie Foster, 42, matched with a man on Tinder three weeks ago.
The two hit it off immediately, and soon after, the man, named “James,” began talking at length about cryptocurrency.
He convinced Natalie to buy him a cryptocurrency wallet, a virtual wallet where you can buy and store cryptocurrency.
She was persuaded to upload money and “trade” cryptocurrency, and the scammers initially made it appear she had made a profit of up to $86,000.
However, her balance quickly went to zero before she could withdraw any cash, leaving her with a total loss of $7,500.
Natalie, from Winsford, Cheshire, said: “I feel so stupid, so stupid. I can't believe I'm one of those women I read about in magazines.”
Natalie, who is off work due to multiple sclerosis, said that after she matched with “James”, he began to become very proactive.
She added: “He seemed like a really handsome guy, he had a nice dog and was a very outgoing person. I wasn't interested in that.”
A week after they started chatting, James mentioned that he had an uncle who had made a fortune in the cryptocurrency world.
Natalie said: “I'm not a gambler but his story was very convincing.”
“He told me to deposit $385 and transfer it to a trading platform. I did and made a profit of $100.”
Natalie then invested another $125 into the trading platform and made another $120, but never received the money.
A few days later, James said the next night would be a “big night.”
She said: “He convinced me to put more money down, so I put $2,600 down.
“He then got in touch with his uncle who told him he had been told a once in a century deal was about to take place and that he would make an 800 per cent profit.”
Natalie then withdrew all the money she had left in her savings and transferred it to her cryptocurrency trading account – $4,500 in total.
She was then added to a WhatsApp group with a man claiming to be the uncle of her Tinder match, along with another individual.
Natalie said they then traded and made a profit of $86,000 on her trading platform account.
When she checked for herself, it briefly showed that she had exceeded the amount she could hold, and then the total balance suddenly changed to zero.
Natalie said: “I then contacted customer service and was told I owed a 20% tax to a New York bank account, totalling $25,000.”
But then James transferred $5,000 to her trading platform account.
Natalie said: “At this point I still thought the relationship was going ahead but then I spoke to my ex-partner and the reality hit me.
“I literally found myself falling for a textbook cryptocurrency scam.”
None of the profits from the trade were recovered except for the initial $100, leaving Natalie with a total loss of $7,500.
She then returned to James and confronted him about the fraud, but he told her to “just die.”
He then broke off the relationship with her and disappeared without a trace.
Looking back, Natalie said there were “a lot of red flags” including James claiming to be German but not having a German accent, and even getting the name of his dog wrong, and that photos of him had “clearly been downloaded from somewhere online”.
She has since reported what happened to her to Action Fraud and appointed a lawyer who she hopes will help Natalie get her money back.
Natalie said: “What I inherited from my grandfather was money I'd saved my whole life for. It's a total shock.”
It led Natalie, a mother of three, to have suicidal thoughts.
She added: “I just feel stupid and ridiculous.”
“It's so horrible. I don't know how someone could do this to another person.”
