'I was mesmerised by him': Woman loses $60k to scammer she met on dating app

Charmed by a man she had met on a dating app, a woman lost $60,000 after joining an exclusive investment scheme introduced by her lover.

The woman, surnamed Bai, had first met the man named Corey on dating app Coffee Meets Bagel on Nov 12, reported Shin Min Daily News.

They hit it off and started chatting and exchanging photos. Corey would also call her every day to chat about his life.

"He told me he graduated from a prestigious American university, and was working at a large audit firm in Singapore," recounted the 28-year-old auditor.

When the pair began chatting on Telegram, Bai said that Corey was caring and encouraging towards her. However, he was unwilling to meet her in person.

"He once said that I would be insincere if I kept asking him to meet up. I was mesmerised by him and didn't think too much about it," said Bai.

Introduced to investment scheme

As their relationship quickly progressed, Corey introduced Bai to a private website. He told her he had an invitation code and could only introduce one person to the website.

"He said that since I was his significant other, he invited me to join the website," she recalled.

After she created an account, Corey asked her to join an investment scheme hosted on the website. 

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According to her, the investment scheme was related to Metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFT). The interest rates were also very attractive and even allowed her to earn profits within a day. 

To participate in the scheme, Bai needed to transfer a certain sum within a specified time, before she could withdraw the money.

She first made a transfer of $3,000, and was able to withdraw $3,300 the next day.

"I later invested another $30,000, and Corey said he also put in $60,000. We invested $90,000 in total, which would grow to $110,000 the next day."  

Took four bank loans

Trouble began when Bai's account on the website became frozen right after she entered her password.

She was told by the platform's customer service to transfer $83,160 before Nov 29 to apply for a review to unfreeze her account.

"Corey kept saying that he had borrowed the $60,000 to invest for me, and persistently asked me to transfer the money," lamented Bai.

Left with no other choice, the woman took up four bank loans and clubbed together another $30,000. She then tried to borrow the remaining sum from her longtime friend, who told Bai to inform her parents.

When Bai's parents learned about her situation, they noticed something amiss and urged her to lodge a police report.

The woman said that she did not believe her parents until Corey started giving her the cold shoulder, which made her feel that he was only in a relationship with her for money.

After realising that other people went through similar experiences, Bai eventually made a police report.

Responding to Shin Min's queries, the police confirmed that a report was lodged, and investigations are ongoing.

Scammer sent insulting message

After Bai lodged a police report and stopped replying to Corey's messages, the man deleted their chat history and even sent her a demeaning message.

It read: "Now that I'm not in love with you anymore. You're kind of ugly... I might lose my appetite. I'm so sad for your parents they have to take care of a 28-year-old child."

Bai added that Corey had also once asked for a nude photo of her, but she refused to comply.

"Thinking back now, he might have been preparing to threaten me with the photo," she said.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com