Well, according to the FBI,
there's a major new category
called crypto dating scams.
It's for fraudsters.
Convince people to put their
money into fake cryptocurrency
investments, but they don't miss a thing.
The analytics firm Chain Analysis says
more than $7.7 billion was stolen in
cryptocurrency fraud worldwide in 2021,
and a Warner shows us just how
devastating these scams can be.
I think the biggest thing that I
will be sad about is not being
able to share anything with her
24 year old Nicole Hutchinson lost
her mother Cynthia in February 2020.
Any memories or experiences
after her death?
Hutchinson inherited her mother's house,
which she sold, splitting the
proceeds with her father, $280,000.
Each money she says to help pay for
her 94 year old grandmother's assisted
living and help her and her dad.
That was gonna be our launchpad for him to
retire easily and for me to start my life.
A new life in California and
to start meeting people there.
She joined the dating site hinge.
She says she soon met a man named
Hal and they became friends.
He started asking questions about
my family and my past experiences.
It was a connection that felt even stronger.
She says when he told her he came
from the same town in China from
where Hutchinson was adopted.
We kind of bonded over that
soon. She says he was telling
her about one of his hobbies,
cryptocurrency investing,
and he suggested she too could invest.
I'm like I've never invested in my life.
I don't know anything about cryptocurrency
either, so I was very skeptical
not to worry, he said in a text.
This is my field. I can be your teacher.
First, he told her to create an account
on a legitimate site crypto.com.
Then he sent her a link and told her
to transfer money there to what he said
was a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
She started small but says soon she was
investing larger amounts, 26,049 thousand,
$73,000. He just kept saying
things like look at this money
that can help support your family.
Obviously that's what I've wanted to do
when her account began showing profits,
she suggested to her father that he
invests 2 so he did by December,
their accounts showed a combined
balance of $1.2 million and Hutchinson
decided it was time to cash out.
That's when the site told her before
she could withdraw her money.
She'd have to pay a hefty
tax bill of roughly $380,000.
That's when I was like something's not right.
It wasn't the cryptocurrency.
Investments weren't real,
all her and her father's funds
had gone into the scammers
pockets and all $390,000 stolen.
Messed up my life. I messed up my dad's life.
She told me that it was all a scam.
Hutchinson's father, Melvin,
and all I could do was just
hug her and tell her it's OK.
It's it's OK and it was hard.
It was hard 'cause we lost everything.
They're not alone. A new report finds
just in 2021 cryptocurrency scam
victims last more than $7.7 billion.
Anybody that's really trying hard.
To get you to invest in
cryptocurrencies has a motive.
Rich Sanders investigates cryptocurrency
scams as co-founder of company Cipher Blade.
We asked him to look at Nicole Hutchinson
transactions to see how she was scanned.
This does seem to be what's commonly
referred to as a pig butchering scam. That's
right, it's called a pig butchering scam
where scammers patiently work their
victims before moving in for the kill.
The name really comes from the
fattening up before the slaughter.
In Hutchinson's case,
he found her money started in those
legitimate cryptocurrency accounts.
But the links the crooks told
her to transfer the money to
were actually digital wallets
belonging to the scammers and his
firm traced other money going to
those fake addresses to likely,
he says from other victims.
It is easily a 10 + 1,000,000 figure amount.
So you're saying, conservatively,
they've scamed at least $10 million
in your estimation? Absolutely
money, he says, likely went to an organized
ring of scammers operating out of Asia
who prey on inexperienced victims.
I think he really played off that I
was naive and not knowing anything
about crypto and taking that
and running with it. Hutchinson
and her father are now
living in his RV. I just
hope others don't have to fall for it,
so if me sharing this story
helps that then I'm so grateful.
As for the scammer, her father says
I hope that there is some justice in life.
And he reaps his.
Well, the identity of the scammer
or scammers is still unknown and
that legitimate site crypto.com
is warning consumers to try to
make sure accounts are legitimate
before transferring money into them.