Over the weekend we learned that my elderly father has been talking with a woman he met online as well as investing close to $150k in crypto. After many rounds of back and forth we have confirmed that this is a pig butcher scam and I want to share everything to help others. Before I begin let me explain that my parents have a very bad relationship that should have ended years ago, and this poor relationship left him vulnerable to this situation. Two months ago my father was contacted via LinkedIn by Evelyn Brown claiming to work for Runway Fashion 7 . She got her hooks in by saying "we have so many mutuals in common we must have met!!" Soon after she began love bombing him and building a relationship based on their mutual interest in investing. In the beginning of November he began pulling money out of my parents mutual savings and investment accounts to the tune of $150,000 to invest in Ethereum. Initially he lied to my Mom telling her he was being coached by some buddies. Then it was from a very old co-worker and to mind her own business. Finally when my sister found he had bought a very expensive ring he fessed up that Evelyn had been coaching him on crypto. She had him sign up for TrustWallet and CoinBase, but it continues to be unclear how he signed up (through her, a shady website, or directly). Not only had she talked him into investing, but she had talked him into meeting in December to plan their life together and then again at Christmas because she is so sad to always spend her holiday with colleagues and not family. We are extremely lucky that his family lives in New York and plan to scoop him up at the airport before anything bad can happen. As for the rest of their assessts, thankfully my mother thought fast and managed to freeze the rest of their joint accounts before he could withdraw the bulk of their savings. Over the last 24 hours we have tried to confront him about this being a scam. Unfortunately she has him hook line and sinker. She is his "New York Sweetie" and she "loves him" and would "never lead him astray like the monster he married". With luck my sister managed to wiggle more information from him and we've confirmed the woman on LinkedIn is actually Kate Shelor, a sex coach / hypnotherapist / relationship coach. The phone number she gave my father is not connected back to anyone. I've attempted to contact Runway Fashion 7 to ask about an Evelyn Brown and she does not exist. I wish I could say my story has a happy ending, or an ending at all, but right now we are still trying to pull my father out of this delusional thinking, and he still has plans to meet her in early December. Regardless, we are incontact with law enforcement and working to file paper work with the FBI. If anyone has advice on how to approach him about this I would appreciate it. Regardless, please be careful this has happened so fast and I'm not convincned we haven't lost him forever. via /r/CryptoScams https://ift.tt/UD3kCao
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