A 78-year-old man has nearly lost 50k after being lured into an online romance scam with the promise of having a “better life”.
The man said he had met the woman online about six months ago, after a while the conversation shifted to private messaging service Telegram and video called twice.
“It was all chat, chat, chat. I didn’t meet her in person because she said it was all too soon and then all of a sudden she had to go to Australia,” he said.
He said the woman told him she was from Singapore but owned a jewellery studio in Auckland and that she and her father-in-law invested money into real estate and financial markets.
“She said, ‘You should invest with this crowd and I’ll guarantee your losses if there are any and I’ve never lost anything yet’.“
The man said he was hoodwinked by the promise of making money and the promise of a better life.
“Everyone told me I was crazy, but I believed it. I wanted to believe it. Young girl, awesome looking. I’m 78, live on my own, get a bit lonely at night,” he said
The man would withdraw money and feed it into a crypto coin drop machine to avoid raising any alarms with his bank.
“I transferred it to an online trading platform using crypto and they sent it on to another in US dollars and then it went into my account which we then traded with.”
The man said he would’ve transferred around $2000 a day at its peak.
The man still talks to the woman but refuses to give her more money.
“I’m still trying to find out a little bit more about the lies because they are all there. But I don’t get any answers. I should have just blocked her.”
The man said he approached the authorities, however, they were unable to help.
He doesn’t believe he will ever get his money back.
