"Let’s make money with Bitcoin and get married…" Romance scam victim cases on the rise

A man in his 50s developed a romantic relationship with a Japanese woman he met on a dating app and promised to marry her. Following her request to secure wedding funds, he invested 101.52 million won in virtual assets.

However, both the exchange and the account were fake, and the Japanese woman, who had been seducing him with her love, disappeared, causing the man to lose all his investment.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) on the 2nd, a rise in 'romance scams' has been occurring, where scammers approach people by pretending to like them, only to later perpetrate cryptocurrency investment fraud.

With the prices of major virtual assets like Bitcoin rising about twice over the past year, investment scams using this as bait have become frequent.

In response, financial authorities are sharing real victim cases and issuing consumer warnings about fraudulent activities that seek money after establishing foreign friendships via dating apps or social media.

According to the reports received by the FSS, scammers primarily engage in crimes through methods such as inducing registration on fake cryptocurrency exchanges, providing returns on small coin investments, requesting more significant amounts for investment, and blocking withdrawals and siphoning funds once large sums are deposited.

They allow victims to withdraw a portion of their earnings to instill blind faith in the scammers, who disguise themselves as their romantic partners and fake transaction exchanges.

Recently, there has been an increase in cases where scammers impersonate individuals from Japan, Thailand, and Korean-Americans, approach victims with travel recommendations, and carry out investment scams using gaslighting with success stories and marriage promises.

FSS: "The sweet investment suggestions from 'foreign girlfriends' are 100% scams."

These scammers borrow influencer photos and impersonate professionals such as lawyers and doctors to deceive victims.

Most notably, since scams proceed after relationships develop, it becomes challenging for victims to refuse the scammers' proposals, and the amounts involved are relatively large, warranting special caution.

Particularly, companies that induce registration on virtual asset exchanges online are extremely likely to be illegal, so individuals should exercise caution and refrain from trading.

If the name of the operator does not appear in the "Status of Virtual Asset Business Registration" section on the Financial Information Analysis Institute's website, it is highly probable that the exchange is a fraudulent one created for scamming purposes.

Even if it is an actual cryptocurrency exchange, it is illegal to operate in Korea targeting residents without proper registration while running a Korean-language website and conducting business activities.

If someone has fallen victim to a scam, they should secure evidence such as text messages exchanged with the scammer and deposit details, reporting to the police (112) or submitting to the FSS’s reporting center for unfair trading and investment fraud in virtual assets.

The FSS’s Response to Violation of Civil Rights Headquarters stated, “With the rise in cryptocurrency prices, romance scams are proliferating,” and announced plans to conduct “intensive public awareness campaigns for preventing cryptocurrency investment fraud” in the second half of the year.

Image source: Photo provided by the Financial Supervisory Service, illustrative photos for better understanding of the article / gettyimagesbank