ChatGPT flags crypto romance scam after widow loses $1M

While both criminals and cybersecurity experts engage in a tug of war using AI-powered tools, a widow in the San Francisco Bay Area has showcased how a simple ChatGPT prompt can help protect people from falling victim to crypto scammers.

However, unfortunately for the widow, Margaret Loke, it was too late, as she consulted AI only after losing a hefty sum to so-called "pig butchers" in a romance scam.

In an interview with ABC7 News, Margaret Loke told the usual story of this type of scam. She first found "love" online. After gaining her trust, the scammer began encouraging her to invest in cryptocurrency via the platform he offered and continued to push her to increase her investments, as they appeared to be growing on the platform. However, the account was eventually "frozen," and Loke was demanded to send more money to release the funds.

All these steps are classic pig butchering scam tactics that led Loke to lose almost $1 million. She is also facing a tax bill for withdrawing money from her IRA account and has to deal with the second mortgage she took out at the request of what appear to be Asia-based scammers who collected her money via a bank in Malaysia.

However, from even bigger losses, Loke was apparently saved by ChatGPT, as she consulted the AI agent, and it warned her that this was a scam and urged her to ask the police for help.

The FBI has repeatedly warned of this type of scam, urging people who believe they're victims of crypto investment fraud to stop sending any money to the suspected criminals and file a report at the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.

"Please do not notify the suspected criminals of the FBI’s involvement, which may compromise law enforcement's ability to investigate," the bureau said, urging the public to be cautious of red flags such as strangers pitching investing ideas not long after meeting you.

Meanwhile, last week, the FBI San Diego Field Office announced the seizure of a web domain used to target and defraud Americans through crypto scams.

"The domain had been used by scammers located at the Tai Chang scam compound (aka Casino Kosai) located in the village of Kyaukhat, Burma," the FBI said.

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