Tho Vu texted back and forth with a man, who went by the name Ze Zhao, from China for months after meeting on the dating app Hinge. Zhao told Ms. Vu that he works in customer service for a security company and that he could teach her how to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to make some money. After Ms. Vu, 33, had sent over $300,000 worth of Bitcoin through what looked like a totally legitimate website, Mr. Zhao exchanged all of it into his digital wallet, and disappeared. These types of scams have increased during the pandemic with roughly 56,000 total scams, and $139 million in losses reported last year.
Crypto Scammers’ New Target: Dating Apps
