Crypto dating scam help

markjamesallen

A friend of mine has been chatting to an Asian lady online for some months. She has a business in Europe. They chat by video call. Today he has told me that she is helping him trade crypto currency something he knows nothing about. He has opened a Kracken and a Foris mt ltd account. He says they are sharing the success and she is lending him the money to start the account. He swears that he has not paid a penny of his own money to her or to the accounts. He showed me the balance of the account which is 40,000 us dollars after making a 20k profit this evening after a trade that lasted a few minutes. To me this is too good to be true and I have told him it is highly likely to be a scam. What I can’t fathom is that she is happy to do video calls and she has financed the accounts. I am guessing these are fake trades and account balances. Can anyone tell me if this is a scam they recognise and how it works? Thank you

gravel_2

Almost certainly a scam. Without actually seeing what is going on can't say more. But the crypto romance scam formula is quite ordinary - Asian lady targets lonely man and gifts ridiculous amounts of money on spoofed platforms. The next stage is likely to have your friend invest his own money, if they control the fake platform they can then keep pretending the money is making gains. If your friend ever tries to withdraw the money they will learn their lesson.

Kraken is a legitimate exchange and Foris Dax UK Limited is Crypto.com, another legitimate brand. Foris DAX MT Limited is the company Crypto.com uses within the EU. However, they are likely just faking it to appear legitimate.

cymruchris

Tell him he's being scammed - and if he wants to give the pretty lady some money, he can, but he'll never see it again. She'll just be the 'shopfront' of an organised gang. As you say, it'll all be fake apps/balances/accounts - then he'll put his own money in, see his huge returns, then try to take some out, and voila!

Jyana

markjamesallen said:

A friend of mine has been chatting to an Asian lady online for some months. She has a business in Europe. They chat by video call. Today he has told me that she is helping him trade crypto currency something he knows nothing about. He has opened a Kracken and a Foris mt ltd account. He says they are sharing the success and she is lending him the money to start the account. He swears that he has not paid a penny of his own money to her or to the accounts. He showed me the balance of the account which is 40,000 us dollars after making a 20k profit this evening after a trade that lasted a few minutes. To me this is too good to be true and I have told him it is highly likely to be a scam. What I can’t fathom is that she is happy to do video calls and she has financed the accounts. I am guessing these are fake trades and account balances. Can anyone tell me if this is a scam they recognise and how it works? Thank you

Have a read up on the various forms of the Pig Butchering scam, this sounds like it's a version of that. It's usually done in partnership with a romance or distance friend scam online these days rather than in person. Lots of examples of it on YouTube, Reddit, etc.

Often the best way to go about someone realising/admitting the situation is to ask them questions in a way that they will come to that conclusion themselves. Difficult to achieve a lot of the time, but people very, very rarely admit they have made mistakes when it comes to things like this and will swear they know best. Often it's desperation that they will eventually get their funds back, or that they really do know better than everyone else. Sorry this is happening them, it's a tricky one to get out of sometimes. 

Scottex99

Pig Butchering is the name I think.

He should block her right now and count himself lucky he’s not sent any funds over. Anything he does will be gone instantly 

Ayr_Rage

Substitute a C for the P in the title and sing the Monty Python song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBcY3W5WgNU

markjamesallen

His lucrative trade last night was with Tether, 16k profit on a buy between 19:05 and 19:10 uk time, I have checked the chart and it moved 6 pips 1.00034 to 1.00040. His account balance prior to the trade was about 24k. Is there enough balance to make this trade possible at say 4k a point, as I doubt you’d capture the whole 6 point move and any spread the platform charges? I spread bet myself but only indices through city index and have no idea how the crypto trading works or what the margins are. Thank you

refluxer

Why are you even concerning yourself with whether such profit is possible ? It's clearly a scam and the sooner your friend cuts all ties with this, the better.

markjamesallen

It is a fair question

flaneurs_lobster

gravel_2 said:

Almost certainly a scam

Fixed that for you.

markjamesallen

I am not the one that needs convincing, it is obvious by my concern that I want to convince him.