“I lost my life savings to a Tinder scammer”

A single mother of three has revealed how she lost her life savings to a Tinder scammer. Natalie Foster, 42, matched with a man on Tinder three weeks ago.

The pair immediately stopped before the man, ‘James’, started talking incessantly about cryptocurrency. He convinced Natalie to get a “crypto” wallet – a virtual wallet that allows you to buy and hold cryptocurrencies.

She was tricked into uploading money and trading cryptocurrencies – initially, the scammers made it look like she’d made profits of up to $86,000. But this quickly dropped to zero before she could withdraw any cash – losing a total of £6,000.

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Natalie, from Windsford, Cheshire, said: “I feel stupid, I feel ridiculous, I can’t believe I’m one of these women I read about in magazines.”

Natalie, who gave up work because of MS, said that once she got along with ‘James’, he became very bold. “He looked like a very good-looking guy, had nice dogs and was very impatient,” she said. “I wasn’t that interested.”

A week after they spoke, James said he had an uncle who made a fortune in the crypto world. Natalie said: “I’m not a gambler but it was very convincing. He told me to put in £300 and then transfer it to a trading platform. I did it and then I made £80 profit’.

Natalie then invested a further £100 on the trading platform and won a further £93, although she will never receive the money. A few days later, James said that the following evening would be “a very big night”.

She said: “He talked me into putting in even more money so I put in £2,000. He then said he got in touch with his uncle who told him a once in a century deal was about to be made. down and I could make an 800 percent profit.”

Natalie then withdrew all the money she had left from her savings and transferred it to her crypto trading account, totaling £3,500.

She was then added to a WhatsApp group with a man who claimed to be her Tinder match’s uncle and another person. According to Natalie, they then made a trade that brought a profit of $86,000 to her account on the trading platform. When she went to look for herself, she briefly said she had exceeded the amount she could hold before her total funds suddenly changed to 0. Natalie said: “I then contacted customer services who said they I owe a person 20% tax. New York bank account totaling £20,000.”

But then James transferred $5,000 to her account from the trading platform.

Natalie said: “At the time I thought it was still legal but then I spoke to my ex and he gave me a reality check. I realized I had fallen for a textbook crypto scam.” None of the profits from the trades ever came back to her, apart from the first £80, with Natalie losing a total of £6,000.

He then returned to James to confront him about the scam to which he told him to “go and die quickly”. Then he misbehaved and disappeared without a trace.

Natalie says looking back, there were “all these red flags”, including James saying he was German but without a German accent and even mixing up the names of his own pet dogs, while his photos, Natalie said, “clearly just downloaded”. from somewhere online”.

She has since reported what happened to her to Action Fraud and has trained a lawyer who hopes Natalie will be able to recover her money. Natalie said: “It was my life savings that I inherited from my grandfather – it left me totally distraught.”

This caused mother-of-three Natalie to have suicidal thoughts. She added: “I feel stupid and ridiculous. It’s so awful – I don’t know how I can do this to other people.”