A man has lost his life savings after a woman he met online duped him to invest in cryptocurrency in a scheme dubbed the “Pig Butchering Scam”.
A man says he lost his life savings in a scheme dubbed the “Pig Butchering Scam”.
Steve Belcher told Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV that he met a woman on a dating app who appeared to have similar interests to him, The US Sun reports.
The conversation turned to cryptocurrency, something he’d made about $US70,000 ($A96,600) on in a few years.
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The 52-year-old told the news outlet that the woman he fell for online convinced him to invest on a mobile and web app that seemed legitimate to the software engineer.
Mr Belcher said he successfully deposited funds into the account, including money from his retirement accounts.
He was reportedly able to withdraw cryptocurrency too, until he attempted to take out more.
A “customer service agent” with the app told him “you need to repay the loan before you can withdraw cash from your account,” KMGH-TV reported.
The app demanded $US1.5 million ($A2 million) from the victim and threatened to freeze his account if he didn’t pay.
“I go look on the FBI site and lo and behold, there’s this public alert about this type of scam,” he told the news outlet.
“I’m 52, my entire life savings, gone in a matter of a month.”
The common scam, which involves meeting someone on a dating app, depositing money into a fake investment app (which is constantly changed, renamed or deleted) then losing it all, is called the “Pig Butchering Scam,” KMGH-TV detailed.
This article originally appeared in The US Sun and was reproduced with permission.