A resident of California lost about $ 500,000 as a result of a romantic acquaintance with a crypto -agent. The gullible man gave most of the funds to scammers personally in their hands.

According to local media, in November 2024, the victim met Facebook with a woman who introduced himself as Elsa Valentine. Later they began to communicate in the Telegram messenger, where she admitted that her real name is Chen Sinye. The woman said that she is from Hong Kong and lives in Los Angeles. She claimed that she works in a cosmetic company and tries to invest in cryptocurrencies using her wealthy uncle.

Over time, Xinye convinced the man to invest in cryptocurrency, and then helped him open accounts on a fake service that simulates Coinbase crypto -based. In December 2024, the man transferred $ 5,000 to the Exchange. Xinye continued to persuade Chamberlain to invest even more funds. He transferred $ 26,000, and his acquaintance promised to introduce $ 50,000 for his part.

Later, when the man tried to withdraw funds, he received a message from the “customer support service” that his account was under investigation due to illegal trade. To process the application for withdrawal of funds, it was required to introduce additional funds from the investor.

In January 2025, when the man once again tried to introduce an online deposit, the “client service” informed him that this possibility was blocked, but a representative of the platform could meet him personally to pick up cash and transfer them to his account. The victim met a certain Jay Wang four times in the parking lot of the Mi Pueblo restaurant in Chamberlain. The total amount of funds transferred to him was $ 441,000: $ 30,000, $ 90,000, $ 111,000 and $ 210,000.

After each crediting of funds, the victim tried to withdraw money, but received a refusal. The Coinbase fictitious platform displayed a balance of $ 1,248,561 with a note that these funds are frozen until this amount is replenished by $ 208,227. The low credit rating of the victim and suspicion of laundering of money were indicated as reasons for the refusal of deposits.

Recently, CTM360 experts have identified a new fraudulent scheme using fake stores on the Tiktok platform. Attackers abducted cryptocurrencies using the spy program of Sparkkitty.