A woman lost her entire inheritance and her father’s life savings after falling victim to a crypto romance scam that lured her into fraudulent cryptocurrency investing.
Nicole Hutchinson moved to California for a new beginning after her mother passed away and joined the dating app HINGE to meet new people.
She met a man named “Hao” on the app and they immediately hit if off after seemingly having so much in common.
He eventually shared that one of his hobbies was cryptocurrency investing and he suggested that she get in on the investing.
Against her better judgment, Nicole decided to give it a try.
Hao helped her “set up” her account and she began investing.
Upon seeing profits, Nicole began dumping larger amounts of money in and eventually encouraged her dad to begin investing as well.
By December their account showed a combined balance of $1.2 million.
When they decided to cash out, the site told her she had to pay $380,000 in taxes on the money.
That’s when she learned all of the money she had invested was going into Hao’s pockets.
Nicole told CBS Mornings, “I messed up my life. I messed up my dad’s life.”
Melvin Hutchinson, Nicole’s father shared:
She told me that it was all a scam and all I could do was just hug her and tell her, ‘It’s okay.’
It was hard…it was hard cause we lost everything.
According to Chainanalysis, in 2021 over $7.7 billion has been stolen in crypto romance scams.
Watch the full report below.
Scammer Season is in full effect.
Please be careful and if something doesn’t feel right most likely it isn’t right.