Alexandr Gutu’s life was not easy, but it got worse. The 33-year-old man, a resident of Derbyshire, England, claims to work two jobs, as a kitchen helper in a hotel and as a chef in a pizzeria, totaling 320 hours a month.
His dream was to save money to buy a house and start a family. In total, Gutu had already saved 42,000 British pounds (R$260,000), but ended up losing everything in a Bitcoin scam.
While searching for a girlfriend on a relationship app, Gutu found a beautiful woman who showed interest in him, but the story didn’t end the way he imagined.
In conversations, the man reports what they were talking about “life, family and future”. On one occasion, he talked about his plans to buy a house, possibly revealing that he was saving for it.
“She said she had an uncle who worked in a large European company, worked in commerce, and could help me with extra income because I lost my hours [no meu trabalho].”
Believing that this would bring him closer to his dream of buying a house and finding a girlfriend, Gutu then started talking to this “uncle”, unaware that it was a scam.
When asked, Gutu bought some cryptocurrency and handed it over to the scammers. Since the investments seemed to be going well, he decided to send all his money. When they tried to withdraw the amount, they all disappeared.
“Everything was fine, I transferred some more money because it looked good, until I transferred a large amount and [quando] I asked back, the scammers deleted the WhatsApp account and disappeared with my money.”
In addition to saving to buy a house, Gutu also revealed that he was planning to bring his parents from Moldova, a country bordering Ukraine, to England.
Bitcoin scam victim is looking for donations
Alexandr Gutu filed a police report and provided screenshots of conversations and photos. However, recovering lost money is difficult as scammers can use fake identities.
“Now, without my savings, I can’t buy a house, raise a family, I’m always working”Gutu told British newspaper Derby Telegraph. “I thought it would take two years of work each day to make the money back.”
“I wanted to find a girlfriend, found a scam instead.”
While the police work to solve his case, Gutu has created a page to receive donations and recover his money. At the time of writing, he has already received £66 (£100), still far short of his £42,000 target.
In the comments on his donation page, another user also reported a similar case, but said he realized it was a scam before transferring the cryptocurrencies.
“I also met this scammer on Tinder, they made me open a Binance account first and then they tried to transfer money to a fake trading site, which was actually a cryptocurrency wallet”remarked another man.
Finally, he says he was surprised by the pressure and impatience of the “uncle investor”, realizing it was a scam after searching the internet for more information. “I realized just in time that it was a fake website”he concluded.
Finally, so-called romance scams are gaining popularity, but it’s not just men who are targeted. In 2021, a woman lost all her savings by transferring £11,000 to a man who claimed to be a manager at a Bitcoin exchange.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
