Perth woman falls victim to an online dating scam, loses $160,000 to fraudster
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They say ‘love makes the world go round’ and while that may be true, there’s no denying that the search for love can often lead us down some fairly dark and difficult paths.
There are so many heartbreaks, false starts and disappointments along the way – not to mention all of the awkward blind dates, painfully awkward interactions with potential suitors at bars or clubs… you get the picture.
But just when you thought the modern dating scene couldn’t get any worse, along comes another curveball in the form of online dating scams. These schemes have been around almost as long as dating websites themselves but they seem to be becoming more sophisticated (and effective) by the day.
A Perth woman was recently the victim of a dating app scam, which saw her scammed out of $160,000. She has sworn off online dating and the internet entirely after just one bad experience, saying she will retire from the scene because of what happened.
Recalling her heart-wrenching experience, Cheryl (not her real name), 30, shared that she had been yearning for a new love after being in an emotionally abusive relationship. Her search led her to sign up for dating apps, hoping that she could find a potential match.
However, the young woman said she had some less-than-productive online dating experiences on more popular sites, such as Bumble and Tinder, so she ended up signing up for Hinge, a dating app with a focus on relationships rather than flings.
In the two days that Cheryl had been using the app, a gentleman named Jackson (not his real name) sent her a like on her profile — this began a 'whirlwind romance' between the two.
However, Cheryl claimed that when she asked for Jackson’s face pics, he always gave an excuse why he couldn’t send them.
Eventually, the two shared 'intimate' photos with each other.
After several weeks of emailing images and sharing intimate details online, Jackson persuaded Cheryl to invest in a cryptocurrency share platform that turned out to be a scam.
Cheryl, who works as a professional accountant, said that the experience made her feel like she's living in 'shame and embarassment'.
What's worse, some of the money she lost was not hers to spend. Her grandparents had loaned her $100,000 to help pay off her home, but she invested it all in the bitcoin platform.
She also shared how she realised that there are many 'red flags' that she ignored when she was 'dating' Jackson, such as the fact that while he claimed that he now lives in Perth, he was an immigrant from China so his level of English language 'was not the best'.
Cheryl also grew suspicious of how the photos that Jackson sent to her never included Jackson's face, pointing out that the only photo, aside from the self-portraits, that bears his face was a shot of him in a bathtub.
Jackson also claimed to work for Metricon Homes, but after more investigation, she discovered they don't have a Perth office.
And while all of these revelations had Cheryl questioning, the final discovery that hit a nerve was when she found out that another profile had the exact same details as Jackson.
She recalled: 'I confronted him about it, I was like "what the f***".'
However, her affection for Jackson still won over and his arguments felt 'very convincing' for her so she decided to let her negative thoughts about him go.
Jackson then recommended that they continue texting via WhatsApp instead of talking through the app.
Cheryl admitted that she 'developed feelings' for him after a few nights of nonstop messaging, admitting that what occurred was 'kind of fast'.
And after a few weeks of back and forth between the two, Cheryl thought that things started getting serious between them, confessing that she couldn’t be any more excited about the budding romance. However, she did not expect Jackson to introduce her to cryptocurrency.
'He showed me the (cryptocurrency) account, he probably had $500,000 in the account,' she said.
“He was sending me screenshots of what he was making and I was like "holy sh*t that’s a lot".'
'But I wasn’t interested, I didn’t know anything about crypto.'
Eventually, Jackson broke the bad news to her – if she wanted to get a piece of the action, she would have to cough up some cash too.
The amount the fraudster requested wasn’t a huge amount to start – so Cheryl went with it.
Her initial investment performed well, and she was able to retrieve her cash, so she decided to invest an additional $16,000 in the next round of funding.
She shared: 'That way I could trade bigger amounts and start earning more profit.'
The scheme then kicked into full gear. The network they were using promoted a 'recharge incentive’, which meant that if she invested a particular amount of money, the corporation would deposit $3000 worth of cryptocurrency into her account.
‘Normally I wouldn’t do this, but Jackson egged me on. I felt like I could trust him completely,' she added.
Jackson then proposed a pair recharge in which they would each receive a $10,000 bonus if they donated $50,000.
Cheryl was sceptical to say the least but Jackson sent her a screenshot of him putting in the $50,000 donation. She then followed suit and donated the $50,000 as well.
Everything was going smoothly for the time being until Cheryl noticed her investments were no longer ticking along nicely. She decided to withdraw some of her cash but then an error message popped up on the site saying that her account was frozen due to ‘suspicious activity’.
She was informed that she would need to deposit or transfer at least 50 per cent of her balance (which was around $50,000) to unlock it. If she didn’t deposit the cash within seven days, the account would be closed permanently.
Cheryl had just enough money to meet the requirements after she liquidated her entire stock portfolio.
She recalled: 'I had my stock portfolio of $60,000 – two years’ worth of stocks.'
'I asked Jackson to come through with it but he made an excuse that he was being investigated by the ATO and couldn’t possibly give me any cash.'
She eventually realised it was all a ruse, especially after telling her friends about the situation.
Cheryl said: 'I ended up blocking him on WhatsApp and deleting him from my Hinge account. I’ll never use Hinge ever again.”
After an investigation, Cheryl discovered that Hinge had deleted both of the scam accounts that she had flagged with them.
A Hinge spokesperson provided a statement regarding the unfortunate incident, saying that they investigate all fraud complaints, using AI and human moderators to detect and delete fake accounts.
'We take fraud very seriously on our platform and use artificial intelligence and human moderators to proactively detect and delete fraudulent accounts before they can engage daters,' they said.
'As daters look for a meaningful connection, we continue to invest in new updates and technologies to keep them safe.'
Hinge is also planning to launch a selfie verification tool, which would allow users to authenticate the legitimacy of their accounts.
'We encourage users to verify their accounts and match with others that have verified their profiles,' the representative continued.
While most of our members are already out of the dating scene, we still encourage you to inform your loved ones who might be looking for love online of this new scamming scheme.
Please stay safe out there, folks!
There are so many heartbreaks, false starts and disappointments along the way – not to mention all of the awkward blind dates, painfully awkward interactions with potential suitors at bars or clubs… you get the picture.
But just when you thought the modern dating scene couldn’t get any worse, along comes another curveball in the form of online dating scams. These schemes have been around almost as long as dating websites themselves but they seem to be becoming more sophisticated (and effective) by the day.
A Perth woman was recently the victim of a dating app scam, which saw her scammed out of $160,000. She has sworn off online dating and the internet entirely after just one bad experience, saying she will retire from the scene because of what happened.
Recalling her heart-wrenching experience, Cheryl (not her real name), 30, shared that she had been yearning for a new love after being in an emotionally abusive relationship. Her search led her to sign up for dating apps, hoping that she could find a potential match.
Many single people try their luck at finding their match on dating apps nowadays, but this new scam might make them think twice. Credit: Pexels/cottonbro studio.
However, the young woman said she had some less-than-productive online dating experiences on more popular sites, such as Bumble and Tinder, so she ended up signing up for Hinge, a dating app with a focus on relationships rather than flings.
In the two days that Cheryl had been using the app, a gentleman named Jackson (not his real name) sent her a like on her profile — this began a 'whirlwind romance' between the two.
However, Cheryl claimed that when she asked for Jackson’s face pics, he always gave an excuse why he couldn’t send them.
Eventually, the two shared 'intimate' photos with each other.
After several weeks of emailing images and sharing intimate details online, Jackson persuaded Cheryl to invest in a cryptocurrency share platform that turned out to be a scam.
Cheryl, who works as a professional accountant, said that the experience made her feel like she's living in 'shame and embarassment'.
What's worse, some of the money she lost was not hers to spend. Her grandparents had loaned her $100,000 to help pay off her home, but she invested it all in the bitcoin platform.
A screenshot of the profile of Cheryl's 'date' from the dating app. Credit: Hinge.
She also shared how she realised that there are many 'red flags' that she ignored when she was 'dating' Jackson, such as the fact that while he claimed that he now lives in Perth, he was an immigrant from China so his level of English language 'was not the best'.
Cheryl also grew suspicious of how the photos that Jackson sent to her never included Jackson's face, pointing out that the only photo, aside from the self-portraits, that bears his face was a shot of him in a bathtub.
Jackson also claimed to work for Metricon Homes, but after more investigation, she discovered they don't have a Perth office.
And while all of these revelations had Cheryl questioning, the final discovery that hit a nerve was when she found out that another profile had the exact same details as Jackson.
She recalled: 'I confronted him about it, I was like "what the f***".'
However, her affection for Jackson still won over and his arguments felt 'very convincing' for her so she decided to let her negative thoughts about him go.
Jackson then recommended that they continue texting via WhatsApp instead of talking through the app.
Cheryl admitted that she 'developed feelings' for him after a few nights of nonstop messaging, admitting that what occurred was 'kind of fast'.
And after a few weeks of back and forth between the two, Cheryl thought that things started getting serious between them, confessing that she couldn’t be any more excited about the budding romance. However, she did not expect Jackson to introduce her to cryptocurrency.
'He showed me the (cryptocurrency) account, he probably had $500,000 in the account,' she said.
“He was sending me screenshots of what he was making and I was like "holy sh*t that’s a lot".'
'But I wasn’t interested, I didn’t know anything about crypto.'
Eventually, Jackson broke the bad news to her – if she wanted to get a piece of the action, she would have to cough up some cash too.
The amount the fraudster requested wasn’t a huge amount to start – so Cheryl went with it.
Her initial investment performed well, and she was able to retrieve her cash, so she decided to invest an additional $16,000 in the next round of funding.
She shared: 'That way I could trade bigger amounts and start earning more profit.'
The scheme then kicked into full gear. The network they were using promoted a 'recharge incentive’, which meant that if she invested a particular amount of money, the corporation would deposit $3000 worth of cryptocurrency into her account.
‘Normally I wouldn’t do this, but Jackson egged me on. I felt like I could trust him completely,' she added.
Jackson then proposed a pair recharge in which they would each receive a $10,000 bonus if they donated $50,000.
Cheryl was sceptical to say the least but Jackson sent her a screenshot of him putting in the $50,000 donation. She then followed suit and donated the $50,000 as well.
Everything was going smoothly for the time being until Cheryl noticed her investments were no longer ticking along nicely. She decided to withdraw some of her cash but then an error message popped up on the site saying that her account was frozen due to ‘suspicious activity’.
She was informed that she would need to deposit or transfer at least 50 per cent of her balance (which was around $50,000) to unlock it. If she didn’t deposit the cash within seven days, the account would be closed permanently.
Cheryl had just enough money to meet the requirements after she liquidated her entire stock portfolio.
She recalled: 'I had my stock portfolio of $60,000 – two years’ worth of stocks.'
'I asked Jackson to come through with it but he made an excuse that he was being investigated by the ATO and couldn’t possibly give me any cash.'
She eventually realised it was all a ruse, especially after telling her friends about the situation.
Cheryl said: 'I ended up blocking him on WhatsApp and deleting him from my Hinge account. I’ll never use Hinge ever again.”
After an investigation, Cheryl discovered that Hinge had deleted both of the scam accounts that she had flagged with them.
A Hinge spokesperson provided a statement regarding the unfortunate incident, saying that they investigate all fraud complaints, using AI and human moderators to detect and delete fake accounts.
'We take fraud very seriously on our platform and use artificial intelligence and human moderators to proactively detect and delete fraudulent accounts before they can engage daters,' they said.
'As daters look for a meaningful connection, we continue to invest in new updates and technologies to keep them safe.'
Hinge is also planning to launch a selfie verification tool, which would allow users to authenticate the legitimacy of their accounts.
'We encourage users to verify their accounts and match with others that have verified their profiles,' the representative continued.
While most of our members are already out of the dating scene, we still encourage you to inform your loved ones who might be looking for love online of this new scamming scheme.
Please stay safe out there, folks!
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