Texas retiree forced to return to work after losing $500K in investment-romance scam

Gary Dalrymple had just signed up for the dating site Silver Singles when Gianna, a pretty blonde female, responded to his smile emoji message, CBS News Texas reports.

Immediately, from morning to night each day, the two texted, sharing things like their goals, family and life experiences. About two weeks into these all-day affairs, Dalrymple recalled Gianna asking if he knew anything about cryptocurrency. Feeling unpressured, he let her show him how to invest.

Dalrymple said he saw his funds increase as the relationship continued for a couple of months. At that point, Gianna asked him to borrow more money and continue. And so, with his family and friends in the dark on both his relationship and investing, Dalrymple cashed out his 401(k).

By the end, Dalrymple had lost about $500,000, which he plans to repay by coming out of retirement full-time and selling his home, he told CBS.

“It’s kind of tough … Why me? Why didn’t I catch this? Why was I so shortsighted?”

Sure enough, when the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Monica Horton inspected the website through which Dalrymple saw his investments grow, she confirmed it was fake. It turns out Gianna isn’t who she said she was but, instead, likely a group of scammers trying to steal from him, Horton explained.

The scam Dalrymple experienced is a blend of romance-investment fraud, noted by Horton and the BBB’s 2024 Scam Tracker Risk report. Investment was the top BBB-reported scam last year, with cryptocurrency involved in almost half (45.3%) of those reported.

According to the study, investment and romance scams are some of the riskiest scams reported by consumers, with over 80% of those targeted in investment and cryptocurrency scams reporting monetary losses of a median of $5,000.

What's more, the report reveals that 26.2% of those who reported investment/cryptocurrency scams said their scammer spent time building a romance or a friendship before taking their money.

Read more: An alarming 97% of older Americans are carrying debt into retirement — here’s why and 4 simple things you can do if you’re stuck in the same situation

Financial grooming is when a scammer builds a relationship with their potential victim before executing the scam. Investment/cryptocurrency and romance/friendship scams are two types of this behavior, often leaving victims confused and devastated.

The good news is there are red flags to watch for:

1. Relationship and trust building can take a while (weeks or months). During this time, the scammer will likely avoid communicating through any trusted or secure sites and apps or on the phone, and they won’t show their face on video calls, as Dalrymple experienced.

2. At this point, mentions of their financial success are typical and, eventually, victims are encouraged to try investing — usually in cryptocurrency, which Horton said crooks like to use, because, as she explains, “it's untraceable, just like handing cash to a stranger.” These requests can seem small and insignificant at first but build up over time.

3. As victims’ investments grow, scammers will encourage even more investment of larger sums — until it’s too late and the money is lost to theft via a fake platform.

4. Victims of financial grooming are likely to be retargeted since scammers flag them as those who gave them money, Horton cautions. “These fraudsters are going to continue to try and trick you and get more and more money.”

5. More recently, scammers have been hiring people and only paying in cryptocurrency. Workers must first make deposits to their new cryptocurrency account, but they can’t access employment earnings until more funds are added or other charges are paid.

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.