‘Fake love’ crypto scammers ensnare US victims
Philadelphia (AFP) – The “wine trader” wooed her online for months with his flirtatious smile and emoji-sprinkled texts. Then he went for the kill, defrauding the Philadelphia-based tech professional out of $450,000 in a cryptocurrency romance scam. The con — which drained Shreya Datta, 37, of her savings and retirement funds while saddling her with debt -– involved the use of digitally altered deepfake videos and a script so sophisticated that she felt her “brain was hacked.” The scam is commonly known as “pig butchering,” with victims likened to hogs fattened up by fraudsters with feigned l…