Scammers Lure Dating App Users into Crypto Fraud

It seems like there is no end to the creativity of scammers and bad actors. In the latest attempt to scam people, crooks have resorted to fishing for victims on dating apps.

Researchers with security firm Sophos traced a scam called CryptoRom, orchestrated within the user base of iPhone dating apps. The criminals would contact their marks through the interface of a dating app and gradually earn their trust. Once the scammer feels they have lured the victim in, they would ask the victim to install a fake trading application and execute trades using it, usually paying in crypto.

The fake trading app is executed to a high-quality standard and uses domains that look legitimate. The app even has what appears like functional customer support, at least at first glance.

The scammer gradually instructs and encourages their victims to buy different financial products or invest in specific events inside the fake app. If the victim is reluctant at first, the scammers even offer them a fake loan, transferred through the app. Victims are sometimes also allowed to withdraw money and even some profit, as part of the initial push to sell the fake app as profitable and reliable.

Once the victim gets on with the program and catches on to the scam, the scammers simply lock them out of their account.

According to Sophos' findings, the vast majority of victims in this weird marriage of crypto scam and dating apps are citizens of the US and European countries and are also iPhone users.

The crooks running the CryptoRom scam have raked in an estimated $1.4 million from their victims so far.

Earlier in 2021, researchers spotted a very similar scam, where criminals were once again using dating applications to reel in victims, but back then the attacks were targeting victims in Asia and were spread more evenly among iPhone and Android users.

In the latest version of this scam, the fraudsters were asking their marks to buy crypto using the Binance app and then funnel it into the fake app they were coaxed into installing.