San Antonio kindergarten teacher loses $6,500 in dating app bitcoin scam

SAN ANTONIO – When kindergarten teacher Beth Hutchinson met “Robert” on the Bumble dating app, he seemed like a potential match.

“He said he was adopted, grew up in Switzerland, moved to the United States three or four years ago,” she recalled.

He suggested they move their conversations off the platform and onto the private messaging app WhatsApp.

After a couple of weeks of messages, including heart emojis, she said he offered to teach her about trading and investing.

“He showed me how to take money from my account, turn it into Bitcoin and then be able to start using it to trade and stuff on the New York Stock Exchange,” Hutchinson said.

She started with $1,000. Within a few weeks, she had turned $6,500 into cryptocurrency and invested it on a website “Robert” said was the New York Stock Exchange. It looked promising.

“Every time I did it, I always made money up to the point where it was a couple hundred at a time,” she said. “I thought I put my money on the New York Stock Exchange.”

But when “Robert” became aggressive and threatening, she sensed something was wrong and called the real New York Stock Exchange.

“I gave them the URL and they said, ‘It’s not one of ours,'” Hutchinson said. “My heart dropped into my stomach.”

The website was fake, but the money she had invested was real. It was also gone.

It is hardly the first time that an online flirt has turned out to be a fake. Last year, crypto-romance scammers conned people out of about $139 million, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

It is a very lucrative scam they prey on emotions and human nature.

“There’s a genuine fear of missing out on the next best investment opportunity,” said Jason Meza of the Better Business Bureau.

Warning signs that Romeo or Juliet may be a scammer include moving the conversation off the original platform and into a private messaging app that is encrypted.

Other red flags are making the conversation about money and never being able to meet in person.

Hutchinson said the fact he never actually asked for her accounts probably gave her a false sense of security. “Robert” also said he lived in Chicago and when he called to video chat, it was always while she was at work and couldn’t answer.

She knows that it is highly unlikely that she will get her money back. She has filed reports with the FBI and the BBB. Now she wants to warn others about sweet talkers who are out to steal hearts and money.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Well, I’d be smarter than that,'” she said. “Well most people see me as a pretty intelligent person, but it still happened to me too.”

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