Even in the ruthless realm of online fraud, pig-slaughtering can be so devastating that it startles veteran investigators and victim advocates. “What makes it so believable is the technological sophistication,”
After taking $1.2 million from Cy in a crypto fraud scam, the criminal ended their two-month online correspondence with the words, “Now you have to go kill yourself.” Cy, a Bay Area real estate analyst, almost did.
An investigator for the San Francisco cybersecurity company Sift found that one in 20 people who approached her on dating apps was working the scam. “I really do not think that I can ever forgive myself,” says Cy, who requested to use a pseudonym to protect his career and family. R, another Bay Area victim of the scam, is an IT manager. “I never thought it could happen to me because I use tech. I’ve written software.” But when a man approached her on LinkedIn she noted he was an alum of a top tech university in China she graduated from. Over a months-long process of WhatsApp chats, she was also guided to invest in cryptocurrency. Like Cy, she lost around $1.3 million.
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