Crypto dating scam help

markjamesallen

Johnjdc said:

How did they meet in the first place, was it by any chance a "wrong number" text?

Does she look like any of these women? https://www.scamwatcher.com/scam/view/623712

Will look into this, thank you. He has had live video of her so unlikely to be a deep fake.

markjamesallen

Update and plan forward:
Thank you everyone for the invaluable help you are giving. I have forwarded my friend the link to this thread, I have sent him these links:
https://crypto.com/university/crypto-romance-scams
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2023/romance-and-crypto-schemes-combined.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-Y1h9rTUs

I received a reply from him:
"Thanks for earlier, it all makes sense".

I still want to check some things with him that have been suggested by you guys:
Try to withdrawal money
Login to Kraken on a different device
Find out how he got the app link
What the initial hook up was - I think he told me it was a "wrong" text message but I'll find out so you all know

I also want to make sure he hasn't already sent money - this is the painful bit for a victim to admit to.

You've all been great thank you

dgpur

This was a helpful item that could be of use: https://youtu.be/pLPpl2ISKTg?si=sXOtWgFA8qV7X_L7

cymruchris

Maybe you can ask him to join up (anonymously) and come ask us himself what we think.... See if he's open to talking about it with strangers that don't know him - to affirm some of the things you've been telling him.

TheBanker

flaneurs_lobster said:

Rather off-the-wall but anyways....

If OP is convinced by now that this is a scam (and it is) is there any mechanism whereby the victim's bank(s) could be informed of a potential fraudulent request for money? Or maybe the police?

(Obviously you'd need to know who the victim banks with)

Sounds completely wrong that there might be such a channel - and a person's right to do what they damn-well please with their own money is being infringed upon - but a crime is going to be committed and it seems odd that there is no way to take preventative measures.

Working for a bank, the chances are the bank will spot these transactions as being unusual for their customer and intervene. However, what usually happens is that the scammer gives the victim a plausible reason for making the payment and tells them to lie to the bank if they ask about the transaction. So even if the bank suspect a scam, they have the same problem as the victim's friend in trying to convince their customer not to do it. In this case the bank will have a harder job than the OP, as they'll likely be given a plausible !!!!!! and bull story about transferring the money to a neice as a gift for a house deposit or some such.