Dating on the apps? Here’s how to spot a scammer

Shreya Datta thought she had met her dream guy on Hinge, but ended up being scammed out of $450,000 in a cryptocurrency investment scheme known as “pig butchering” — a loose translation of the name of the online scam in China, where it’s thought to have originated.

Datta, 37, shared her story with The Inquirer in hopes of raising awareness about the con.

We spoke to two experts — Tracy Z. Maleeff, principal of Sherpa Intelligence, a cybersecurity research firm, and Ronnie Tokazowski, a cyber-romance scam victim advocate at Cofense Email Security — about how to avoid these kinds of schemes.

Victims reported losing $2.57 billion in cryptocurrency investment scams last year, nearly tripling from 2021, according to the FBI’s internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3).

The old adage applies here: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Listen for what someone isn’t saying, Malleeff advised. Do they skirt direct questions about their life and change the subject? Are they avoiding being on camera or making excuses about why they can’t meet up? That can be a tell.

And even if they do go on camera with you: “A.I. has come a long way,” Tokazowski said. Scammers can use filters to modify their appearance or share a video file to make it look like it’s streaming through a webcam.

Scammers will try to move quickly, Tokazowski said. That’s why “anything that’s urgent is something to be wary of,” according to Maleeff.

Always find apps on your own, Maleeff said, from an online store like Apple’s or Google’s. Links sent by people you met on an app could be malware.

Don’t offer information about your salary or investments with someone new. And outside of an interaction with someone on an app, Maleeff said, anything you post online is information a scammer can mine to manipulate you.

If you’re talking to a friend or a loved one and concerned they might be getting scammed, Maleeff said it’s most important to not victim-blame. There’s nothing to gain from shaming.

“Keep in mind you’re dealing with professional criminals,” she said. “They’re as tactical as surgeons.”

Try sharing an article about the scam instead of alienating victims by judging their actions.

It’s hard to get money back after you’ve been scammed through crypto investment fraud, Tokazowski said, but your best bet is to report the scam to the IC3, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the U.S. Secret Service. Useful information include the name of the program you downloaded, the website it came from, and any usernames associated with it.

Don’t keep engaging with the scammer. The person on the other line is usually a victim themselves — it’s likely they’ve been trafficked and forced to work as scammers, Vice News and the South China Morning Post have reported — and stringing that person along could get them in trouble. It’s something Tokazowski has seen firsthand.