In brief
- A San Jose widow lost nearly $1 million after a scammer posing as a romantic partner pushed her into fake crypto investments.
- The victim asked ChatGPT about the investment claims, and the AI warned her that the setup matched known scams.
- Regulators say relationship-based crypto schemes remain one of the fastest-growing forms of financial fraud.
A San Jose widow who believed she had found a new romantic partner online instead lost nearly $1 million in a crypto “pig-butchering” scam, and only realized it after asking ChatGPT if the investment offer made sense.
The scheme drained her retirement accounts and left her at risk of losing her home, according to a report by San Jose-based ABC7 News.
The woman, Margaret Loke, met a man who called himself “Ed” on Facebook last May. The relationship moved quickly to WhatsApp, where the man, claiming to be a wealthy businessman, sent affectionate messages each day and encouraged her to confide in him.
As the online relationship deepened, the daily check-ins never stopped.
"He was really nice to me, greeted me every morning,” Loke told ABC7 News. “He sends me every day the message ‘good morning.’ He says he likes me.”
The conversations soon turned to crypto investing. Loke said she had no trading experience, but “Ed” guided her through wiring funds into an online account that “he” controlled.
According to Loke, Ed showed her an app screenshot that showed her making “a big profit in seconds,” a tactic common in pig-butchering schemes that use fabricated results to convince victims their money is growing.
Pig-butchering scams are long-form cons in which fraudsters build a relationship with a victim over weeks or months before steering them into fake investment platforms and draining their savings.
In August, Meta said it removed over 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to pig butchering scams.
As the scam progressed, Loke said she sent a series of escalating transfers, starting with $15,000, which grew to over $490,000 from her IRA.
She eventually took out a $300,000 second mortgage and wired those funds as well. Altogether, she sent close to $1 million to accounts controlled by the scammers.
A scam exposed by an unlikely ally
When her supposed crypto account suddenly “froze,” “Ed” demanded an additional $1 million to release the funds. Panicked, Loke described the situation to ChatGPT.
"ChatGPT told me: No, this is a scam, you'd better go to the police station,” she told ABC7.
The AI responded that the setup matched known scam patterns, prompting her to confront the man she believed she was dating and then contact the police.
Investigators later confirmed she had been routing money to a bank in Malaysia, where it was withdrawn by scammers.
"Why am I so stupid. I let him scam me!" Loke said. "I was really, really depressed."
Loke’s case is the latest example of ChatGPT being used to bust scammers.
Last week, an IT professional in Delhi said he “vibe coded” a website that allowed him to determine the location and photo of a would-be scammer.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment.
A growing cybercrime trend
According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), $9.3 billion was lost to online scams targeting American senior citizens in 2024.
Many of these scams originated from Europe or compounds in Southeast Asia, where large groups of scammers target international victims. In September, the US Treasury sanctioned 19 entities across Burma and Cambodia that it says scammed Americans.
"Southeast Asia's cyber scam industry not only threatens the well-being and financial security of Americans, but also subjects thousands of people to modern slavery," John K. Hurley, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission warn that unsolicited crypto “coaching” that begins inside an online relationship is a hallmark of relationship scams—long-game frauds in which a scammer builds emotional trust before steering the victim into fake investments.
Loke’s case followed that pattern, with escalating pressure to deposit more and more money.
Federal regulators warn that recovering funds from overseas pig-butchering operations is exceedingly rare once money leaves U.S. banking channels, leaving victims like Loke with few avenues for restitution.