Harris County man loses $800K in romance crypto scam as area sees ‘exponential’ growth in crime

Harris County man loses $800K in romance crypto scam as area sees ‘exponential’ growth in crime

only on two tonight it’s a new twist to
a scam affecting people of all ages
whether you’re looking for love or maybe
not but the FBI Houston says every
single week they’re getting new reports
of money lost in cryptocurrency
investment schemes it’s a financial
crime investigators say has grown a lot
only KPRC 2’s Bryce Newberry has the
story tonight of a Harris County man who
lost nearly a million
doar it can start with something as
simple as a text that says Hi how are
you but responding could turn into the
loss of your entire life savings they
will take everything that they can get
their hands on new numbers from the FBI
reveal cryptocurrency investment scams
in the Houston area have led to the loss
of more than $82 million in just the
last 16 months much of the money moving
to countries in Southeast Asia and West
Africa once you’ve made that transaction
and it’s gone it is extremely hard to
ever return ear that money to to the
victims how are they pitching it they
try to contact you in in a number of
ways and they will take days weeks
months developing that relationship it
started on a dating app for one Harris
County man last summer thinking he met
his match he spent a couple months
exchanging messages with the new
romantic interest he lost over $800,000
he thought he was doing a legitimate
investment he made a
$140,000 investment in cryptocurrency
then a fraudulent Account dashboard
showed that grew to $1.7 million that’s
when Harris County’s Chief cyber crimes
prosecutor says the scam got even worse
because the scammer wanted hundreds of
thousands more to get any money out
finally he just realized that he was
never going to see any of the 1.7
million there are a lot of people who
are really desperate to have a
relationship Dr John Vincent is a
clinical psychologist the more desperate
he says the more vulnerable when someone
is in the mindset of finding love mhm
how difficult is it to convince them
that they’re being scammed often very
difficult uh it’s often the case that uh
you know they really believe the person
they’re talking to and these folks can
be incredibly persuasive innocent people
including older adults are being taken
advantage of by these International
sophisticated criminal networks and
while Millions have been lost the amount
may be higher because some are ashamed
to admit they fell for it fast as this
moves with
cryptocurrency um the longer it takes
for law enforcement to get involved the
less likely of a recovery investigators
tracked less than 20% of that Harris
County man’s stolen 800 Grand to crypto
wallets he’s expected to get that amount
back after a judge recently ordered
restitution but the best advice don’t
respond to unsolicited messages and
never give money to someone you’ve never
actually met I’m Bryce Newberry KPRC 2
news and

It’s a new twist on a classic scam that’s affecting people of all ages, according to FBI Houston, whether you’re looking for love or not.