Even now, face to face with his decimated savings, it's hard to reconcile the five-month relationship he had with a Finnish woman in Florida with the elaborate scam it now clearly was. It felt different than a typical con too personal, too involved, too reciprocal. But really, what's known as pig butchering schemes where scammers build relationships and trust with victims before tricking them into sham cryptocurrency investments have become particularly pervasive, with some operations tied to mass scam centers based abroad.
It's embarrassing to say, but I might as well lead with the truth: I'm 76 and still horny as hell. I'm tall, with the kind of posture that used to turn heads but now just reminds me to stretch. My hair's gone white, my skin's mapped with wrinkles, and even with hearing aids, I miss half of what people say. But desiredesire's still loud.
Authorities have seized $15bn (11.3bn) worth of bitcoin and a string of luxury London properties in a joint UK-US crackdown on criminal masterminds behind romance scam centres in south-east Asia. The bitcoin confiscated by US investigators is the largest seizure in the history of the Department of Justice. A multi-million mansion and office block in the City of London are among 19 UK properties also being seized as the two governments issue sanctions on a gang that runs such scam centres on an industrial scale.