A Tennessee woman met a guy on Hinge and wound up with something much worse than a bad first date. It all started when Nicole Hutchinson inherited her mom’s house, which she sold and split the proceeds with her father. The 24-year-old got $280-thousand she was planning to use to help her family and start a new life in California.
Prior to her move, she joined the dating app and met a guy who called himself “Hao” and they became friends. Nicole says she felt a strong connection to him when he told her that he was from the same town in China where she was adopted.
- Her new pal suggested she invest in cryptocurrency and claimed to know a lot about it, so he offered to help her.
- Nicole says Hao first had her create an account on a legitimate site, Crypto.com.
- Then sent her a link and told her to transfer money to that, which he said was a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
- She started small, then began investing larger amounts of money to the link Hao sent her.
- And when she saw profits, she told her dad he should invest too, so he did.
By the time their accounts showed a combined balance of $1.2-million, Nicole was ready to cash out. But the site told her she couldn’t withdraw the money until she paid a “tax bill” of about $380-thousand. And that’s when she says she discovered the crypto investments weren’t real and all her and her dad’s money had gone to the scammer. Now she’s living with her dad in his RV and they’re sharing their story in hopes that it helps someone else avoid being scammed. “I just hope others don’t fall for it,” Nicole says.
The FTC has tips and info on how not to fall victim to fraud on its website.
Source: CBS News