Florida officials probe crypto scam involving $317,000 theft

Florida authorities have revealed that a Daytona Beach Shores man has lost over $317,000 to a cryptocurrency investment scam. According to new federal records, the man was ensnared by an attractive stranger after receiving a text to help her walk her dog while she was out of town.

The man, whose identity Florida authorities are still keeping a secret and was only identified as victim 1 in federal court records, mentioned that he replied to the stranger’s text. He told the attractive lady that she had the wrong number, but noted that the chatty stranger kept the conversation going. The stranger introduced herself as Astrid Orlov, telling the man that she lived at Lake Nona, a busy Orlando neighborhood, with her uncle.

Florida authorities report $317,000 fake investment scam

The Florida native claimed that things soon started becoming serious, and they started to talk frequently. He claimed that they soon moved their conversation to WhatsApp, then to video chat, although the man claimed that he could not see her during their calls. Orlov claimed that the reason he couldn’t see her face was due to the poor internet connection in the location that she traveled to, a reason he believed because he had no reason to doubt her.

According to court records, filings didn’t indicate if the tone of their conversations was platonic or romantic, but their talks eventually moved from everyday conversations and check-ups to money. The pair spent an extended period talking about investments, specifically gold and digital assets. Orlov claimed that she successfully traded gold online and credited most of her success to her uncle, who watches algorithms to determine what was going to happen with its price.

Court records filed in the US District Court’s Middle District of Florida in Orlando claimed that Orlov eventually succeeded in convincing the man to invest in the trading platform XM DeFi. At Orlov’s insistence to get things moving fast, the man wired $5,000 from his bank account to a crypto account he started for her and bought Bitcoin, which he sent to an address that was provided by Orlov in favor of the XM DeFi trading platform.

The scammer deceived the victim with early profits

The federal court records showed that Orlov instructed the Florida native on how he should buy and sell digital assets through the website to make profits. “Following his initial investment, Victim 1 was able to view what he learned to be fictitious ‘earnings’ on the website,” court documents said. The man said everything seemed legitimate, since he was able to withdraw about $278 in digital assets from his XM DeFi account to his Crypto.com account.

“After his first successful withdrawal of what he believed to be profits from the website, Victim 1 believed that with ‘Orlov’s’ assistance, he could successfully trade gold and make a large amount of money on the platform,” federal court records said. At Orlov’s insistence, the man made another $312,000 in payments from February to May 2024, claiming he thought he was making deals on the trading platform.

“During this time, Victim 1 conducted ‘trades’ on and through the ‘XM Defi’ fraudulent website. Nearly each time he conducted a trade, his investment on the website appeared to grow. Victim 1 stated that during this time, it appeared he only lost a small amount of money on two ‘trades,’” court records said. However, by April 2024, the man started having doubts about the whole investment due to funds missing from his XM DeFi account balance.

After he complained to Orlov, she insisted everything was fine, and she was a real person. She even sent a picture of the Florida driver’s license, which turned out to be fake, to him. Further checks by federal authorities showed that the state has no one under the name. The Florida man was not the only one scammed in the con, with authorities identifying at least 16 other people who lost more than $4 million to strangers.

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