Financial consultant duped out of $1.8 million in scam that started with Tinder message

An Italian man was duped by a con artist on Tinder

An Italian man in Hong Kong was duped out of $1.8 million over the course of five weeks in a dating app scam. The man, a financial consultant by profession, was coaxed into investing in cryptocurrency by a con artist posing as a female investment broker, according to a report in South China Morning Post.

Details of the case came to light on March 28 when it was reported that the victim transferred HK$14.2 million into nine bank accounts at the behest of his online lover, whom he met on Tinder.

The SCMP report stated that the 55-year-old victim received a message from the con artist on Tinder in February. The two soon began to talk regularly and moved their interactions to WhatsApp. The con artist then convinced the man to set up an account on a scam trading website to invest in cryptocurrency.

Between March 6 and 23, the Italian man made 22 transactions – putting money into nine different bank accounts. He began to grow suspicious when he realised he could not get his money back and reported the matter to the police.

“The victim was told that investing in digital money could provide high returns,” a source familiar with the case said.

An investigation has now been launched into the case – one among a long list of similar scams where con artists convince the unsuspecting to invest through bogus trading websites.