New proof that dating sites are real nests of scams. Shreya Datta, 37, told AFP that she felt like her “brain had been hacked” by the fable that was presented to her and by the use of video tricks visibly assisted by artificial intelligence (AI).
The scam begins on a dating app, when Shreya Datta meets a certain “Ancel”, with whom she ends up chatting on WhatsApp. Selfies, saucy emoticons, video calls… this idyllic relationship seems to be off to a good start between the thirty-year-old and the man who claims to be a French wine trader and skillful investor.
Except that these video calls are in reality just “deepfakes”, these artificial videos that scream realism. If he only rejects meetings in the flesh, the crook does not fail to offer flowers for Valentine’s Day to his newly divorced prey.
“Do you really want to work until 65? »
He gradually gains her trust and tells her that having made investments allowed him to retire well in advance. ” He was telling me : I accumulated all this money by investing, do you really want to work until 65? » says this immigrant from India who works in tech. He sends her a link to download a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment application, and shows her how to make money easily.
Shreya Datta contributes part of her savings there. At first, the profits pour in. “When you make astronomical gains on these trades, it disrupts your perception of risk,” she says now.
She then pours all her savings into it, borrows money and even liquidates her retirement fund. For a time, this total investment of 450,000 dollars theoretically seemed to him to have doubled online, only three months after starting the discussion with “Ancel”.
But when he wanted to withdraw this amount, something caught his attention: the system asked for a “tax”. The victim’s brother searches the Internet for a photo of his lover and realizes that he is a German fitness influencer. She subsequently notices that her $450,000 has gone up in smoke, or rather into the hands of her captor.
At least 40,000 cases per year in the United States
“When I realized it was all a scam, that all the money was gone, I felt symptoms of post-traumatic stress. I couldn’t sleep or eat anymore… I wasn’t really there anymore,” says the woman who is now being followed by a psychologist. Without much hope regarding the procedures launched with the authorities, she moved to less expensive accommodation to cope with her new debts.
The worst, for her, is the judgment passed by the public, who find her so naive. “There should be no shame in being the victim of such a psychologically sophisticated fraud,” replied Erin West, a prosecutor in California.
Shreya Datta is far from an isolated case. In 2023, more than 40,000 people reported such cryptocurrency fraud to the FBI, for total losses of more than $3.5 billion, according to figures sent to AFP by the federal police. Amounts undoubtedly underestimated, as the victims, overwhelmed by shame, rarely report their stories.