Winsford resident Natalie Foster, 42, matched with a man called ‘James’ on the online dating platform just three weeks ago.
She has since lost £6,000 through a ‘textbook’ crypto scam.
“I feel stupid, I feel ridiculous – I can’t believe I’m one of these women I read about in magazines,” Natalie said.
“It was my whole life savings which I inherited off my grandad – it’s left me totally distraught.
“It’s so awful – I don’t know how they can do this to other people.”
Natalie, who is signed off work due to her MS, said James was ‘very forward’ and a ‘really good-looking guy’.
Having hit it off, James convinced Natalie to get a crypto wallet – a virtual wallet which allows you to buy and keep cryptocurrency.
Natalie said: “I’m not a gambler but he was very convincing.
“He told me to put in £300 and then transfer it to a trading platform. I did it and then made £80 profit.”
A few days later, James said that the following evening would be ‘a very big night’ with his uncle informing him there was a ‘once-in-a-century’ deal which could make Natalie 800 per cent profit.
Natalie transferred all of the money from her savings into the account and was added to a WhatsApp group with a man purporting to be her Tinder match’s uncle and another person.
According to Natalie, they then did a trade which bagged her $86,000 (£67,000) profit.
However, when she went to check the account it said she had exceeded the amount she could hold in it before her total funds suddenly changed to zero.
Natalie said: “I then contacted customer services who said I owed them 20 per cent tax to a New York bank account totalling £20,000.”
But then James transferred $5,000 into her trading platform account.
Natalie said: “At this point I thought it was still legit but I then talked to my ex-partner and he gave me a reality check.
“I realised I had literally fallen for a textbook crypto scam.”
None of the profits from the trades ever went back to her apart from the initial £80 with Natalie losing £6,000 in total.
When she confronted James about the scam he told her to ‘go and die quickly’ before unmatching with her.
Looking back, Natalie says there were ‘all these red flags’ including James saying he was German, but not having a German accent, and even getting the names of his own pet dogs mixed up while his pictures, Natalie said, were ‘clearly just downloaded from somewhere online’.
She has since reported what happened to her to Action Fraud and has instructed a solicitor who is hopeful Natalie will be able to get her money back.
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