Romance scam costs Colorado man $1.4M in savings

The Colorado Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has started looking into a case of a crypto-linked romance scam, alerting the public to the warning signs of this type of scams. According to authorities, the scammers targeted a Colorado native, scamming the unsuspecting victim out of his $1.4 million retirement savings.

The victim, who remains anonymous, spoke to the media on the condition that he appears in silhouette with his voice disguised to protect his identity. According to the man, the CBI has said they will continue to investigate the case, hoping that they come across a big lead that will blow everything open. Crypto romance scam cases have been on the rise in the past year, with numerous elderly people falling prey. While some appear as pig-butchering scams, others are just outright scams, authorities noted.

Colorado native loses $1.4 million to romance scammers

In his statement, the victim noted that his travails began when he started having marital issues and joined a dating website. He noted that after several connections, he connected with a particular person who turned their conversation from love and romance to financials. The victim mentioned that this person said they could help him invest in several digital assets. He noted that he trusted the person because he felt they were romantically involved.

The victim mentioned that though they never met at any point during their conversations, they did have conversations on FaceTime. The woman said her name was Erin, with investigators noting that it might be a fake screen name adopted by scammers in the past. The victim said it all started with him sending funds to several legitimate cryptocurrency applications. Later, he was asked to send funds to a fake application controlled by the scammer. In total, he lost $1.4 million.

“If it’s too good to be true, it’s not true,” the victim said. According to CBI Special Agent Zeb Semester, this was the largest amount of money he had ever witnessed stolen in a crypto scam. “The largest amounts of losses that we see are in these crypto cases, like that, with investment scams,” Smeester said. He also added that these cases are not difficult to investigate, but law enforcement often takes a different view of them because the criminals are always overseas.

Experts blame the unregulated crypto industry

The CBI Special Agent noted that instead of trying to apprehend the scammers, they focus on retrieving the stolen funds. “We’re not going after the perpetrators because most of them are going to be overseas. And it’s extremely hard to narrow down who those people are,” he said. In a report by the Better Business Bureau’s 2024 Scam Tracker, investment scams, including those that involve digital assets, are the riskiest out there.

The group claims that romance scams currently rank third on the list, but according to BBB Director of Foundation Meghan Conradt, romance scams and crypto investment scams often come hand in hand. “Unfortunately, this is something we at the Better Business Bureau see a lot of. And it’s actually been increasing over the last couple of years,” Conradt said. Semester listed some of the red flags that people need to watch out for so they don’t fall prey to these romance scammers and lose their funds.

Conradt stated the reason why crypto scams are common is that the industry is quite new and unregulated. She mentioned that it doesn’t offer the same protections that victims will enjoy in traditional institutions if they can provide a dispute. “It’s something people aren’t really educated about and don’t know a whole lot about,” she said. “It’s a little bit like the Wild West out there. And the value of it can swing dramatically every day. It could be worth hundreds of thousands one day and worth just a few dollars the next day.”

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