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Love, Lies and Lost Coins: How Online Flirting Ending With Crypto Scam
When flirting with a dating app, it usually ends with a drained wallet. More and more, crypto scammers targeting Americans and millions of dollars stolen overseas.
Online romantic movies will feel exciting in 2025, but the headlines of the cryptocurrency dating scam $36.9 million show its dark side. It usually starts with friendly messages on social media or dating apps. Then, they slowly build trust year by year, looking fascinating, knowledgeable, affectionate and eager to share their investment skills, often in cryptocurrencies.
The victims caused the victims by receiving likable messages, late-night voice calls, fake links to trading platforms, or fake videos of cryptocurrency gains. However, whenever victims try to withdraw their profits, they encounter fees, delays, manipulations, or demands for more deposits. Once the scammers squeeze out enough money, the platform disappears.
In 2023 alone, Americans lost more than $5.6 billion in crypto scams, 71% of which were related to investment. The most prominent romantic scam, also known as pig slaughter.
How rash DMs turn into global crypto money laundering programs
This scam grew from rash DM to international money laundering operations through Shell, which are mostly found on paper without real operations or employees. These entities are often used to hide currency trails, avoid taxes or cover up the real ownership of assets.
In this case, five men scattered across the United States, Spain, China and Turkey were charged after using dating apps and social platforms to get involved in U.S. victims. Two scammers, Jose Somarriba and Shengsheng He, founded Axis Digital, a fake cryptocurrency business that is financially. They opened a Deltec bank account in the Bahamas under the name Axis Digital and used it to accept victim funds. Another co-conspirator Jingliang Su has served as a director and is responsible for converting the stolen funds into Tether Usdt (USDT), the speed and liquidity of fraudsters and legitimate users, which is supported by fraudsters and legitimate users.
Yicheng Zhang and Joseph Wong handle the dirty work in the United States by operating bank accounts, moving currencies between states and covering up the origins of funds. Ultimately, everything ends up in the wallet managed by Cambodia’s scam center, a hub for money laundering.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said the case shocked the public in June 2025, involving lengthy conversations through dating apps, phone calls, and even fake investment dashboards. The victims were told that their crypto investment was growing, when in fact, their funds were remitted to crypto wallets abroad.
More importantly, DOJ is willing to capture more than $225 million in cryptocurrency, which is related to the pig slaughter, involving more than 400 victims, and deceives the fraudulent investment platform. The Justice Department also attributes the ropes to assisting the investigation.
What makes the program stand out is the way it polishes. The victim is not only deceived by one person. They were deceived by an entire system, including corporate fronts, international bank transfers, screenshots of technical terms and unimaginable gains, ready to make everything look legitimate.
Why romantic liars prefer to tie millions of dollars
Unlike traditional bank wires, stable transactions (such as USDT) can be moved immediately across the boundaries with minimal scrutiny. This makes it very suitable for turning unrighteous gains into seemingly clean assets.
The strap money laundering scheme used in this case is a classic example of how crypto anonymity and speed can attract criminals. After Axis Digital collects funds, they are converted into tethers and sent to a Cambodian-based wallet. From there, they are redistributed using telegram-based encrypted money laundering rings, some of which are linked to sanctioned entities.
The U.S. government is increasingly concerned about stablecoins used in illegal finance. That’s why the Justice Department’s crackdown on such cases is linked to greater efforts to regulate and monitor suspicious crypto flows. By tracking the OnChain campaign, investigators discovered wallet addresses, payment methods and conversion activities consistent with known money laundering.
did you know? According to Chainalysis’s crypto crime report, USDT money laundering cases account for 63% of all illegal crypto transactions in 2024. This is a significant leap from previous years, indicating that it is becoming increasingly attractive to fraudsters due to its speed and low fees.
Global Crypto Crime Network
Axis Digital is just one node in a huge digital spider web. The Justice Department’s crackdown on crypto scams is not just the target of romantic scams. It is pursuing international joint organizations, Shell and state-owned groups.
Huione Group’s crypto-crime activity illustrates how criminal networks overlap with geopolitical actors. Finance officials said Huione has become the “preferred market for malicious online actors,” such as North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
More importantly, this underworld is a shocking interconnection: Axis Digital Channels with Cambodia, Huione Funnels connects with South Korea through similar channels, telegraph-based crime ring sharing cover services and guarantees joint groups.
With Justice Department prosecutors being charged with crypto fraud, Jose Somarriba is one of the leaders behind the romance of axial digital encryption, suggesting that 2025 may be a year. The case involved millions of stolen cryptocurrencies and laundering money through Shell has become the cornerstone of the Justice Department’s wider crackdown on pig slaughter-type scams.
This guilty confession is not only a form. This is acceptance from within the ring, perhaps the way to unveil the larger joint organization. U.S. agents are conducting transactions, tracking USDT in Asia and beyond, and drawing digital corridors. They see a pattern: Romantic crypto fraud Americans lead to USDT, which provides the global money laundering pipeline.
did you know? The stolen money in a romantic scam not only disappeared. These funds often flow through wash operations related to the approved population, providing for the broader cybercrime ecosystem.
How to avoid falling into crypto-level traps
Fraudsters use various technologies and behavioral techniques to deceive victims of crypto programs. These pitfalls often use trust, a sense of hasty and a promise of bypassing the big rewards of reasonable judgment.
Looking for red flags can help you stay safe. Be wary of unsolicited investment advice, especially those you just met online.
- Trading platform scam: If a new dating match indicates that the platform has hope of guaranteed profits or asks for more deposits before withdrawing, that is a major warning sign. Never share ID documents or personal data with platforms that have not been thoroughly reviewed.
- Do some research: Check if the company has been registered with the financial authorities and seek independent reviews. Check if the investment platform exists by looking for SEC and DFPI registrations.
- The question “too good to be true” relationship: Love or crypto investment shouldn’t be like a roller coaster. If someone you just met online starts pushing cryptocurrency to you, it’s worth checking the legitimacy of crypto opportunities and relationships.
- Telegram scam: If someone you hardly know recommends using telegrams for encrypted quotes, that can be a scam.
- Face to face or not invest: Scammers tend to hide their true faces and avoid face-to-face conversations, thus providing false proof. Live calls may help, but even AI can be faked.
Emotional vulnerability can also play a role. People in love may have a blurred view of reality and missed warning signs. Others may lack cryptographic knowledge and only hear “huge gains” on social media. This is where crypto education is crucial: understanding the basics can mean the difference between discovering a scam and falling down.