Tinder scammers fool 30 men into sending money over
Swiping right on the wrong person could be costly.
A scam cooked up by two men on Tinder has netted at least 30 victims, who transferred "millions of baht" to the two between 2014 and 2016, authorities told the Bangkok Post.
SEE ALSO:Even primates use Tinder nowOne of the victims transferred 15,000 baht ($435.92) to a woman he matched with on Tinder, that struck up a regular conversation with him.
She claimed to be a Thai Airways stewardess, explaining why she was never available to meet up in person.
But when she said she lost her credit card, and reached out for a loan, he transferred the money to her. Then she ghosted.
Police are hunting for two men thought to be behind the scam. The suspects routinely downloaded publicly available profile pictures they found on Facebook, and set up fake profiles to chat with victims.
People use their smartphones in Thailand.Credit: Epa/ShutterstockAt least three of the profile pictures were of Thai Airways stewardesses. They said they came to know of the scam when their employer set up a inquiry to investigate them for committing fraud.
One of the stewardesses told the Bangkok Postthat her reputation had been damaged because of the investigation, and that she still faces potential disciplinary action by the airline.
Dating scams are rife on the internet. Tinder is plagued with bots that have sent links to malware, and asked for personal information like addresses, and even urged people to wire money over.
Another scammer recently pulled off a similar cheap trick. In just a week, she managed to get 20 people she met on Tinder to send her $5, then ghosted -- but not before boasting about it on Twitter.
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