Tsai would soon learn Jimmy wasn’t who he said he was, and that the account he’d helped her create was connected to a bogus site he controlled. Tsai would go on to lose $2.5 million to a sophisticated type of romance scam that has entrapped thousands of people around the world. Like Tsai, many of the victims are Chinese speaking and of Asian descent, traits they had in common with their scammers that were exploited to gain their trust.
“Once you’ve been groomed enough, it’s like quicksand,” Tsai said. “You so [badly] want to believe that what you’re doing is true, and that this relationship with this person is real.”
Online romance scams have exploded since the coronavirus pandemic began. About 56,000 romance scams were reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2021, more than double than number of reports filed with the agency in 2019. Last year, victims reported losing $547 million, a 78 percent increase from 2020 alone. Growing curiosity about cryptocurrency has served as a strategic — and lucrative — hook for scammers. According to the FTC, the largest losses to romance scams were paid in crypto, totaling $139 million last year.
“Excitement about investing in cryptocurrency — paired with just a general lack of understanding about how it works … is just kind of a recipe for some very effective scams,” said Emma Fletcher, a senior data researcher at the FTC.
The scheme Tsai fell for is believed to have originated in China, where it’s known…
