Scammers are adopting new methods to deceive Russians: they strike up acquaintances on dating sites posing as crypto investors and create fictional healers using neural networks.
Crypto investors and someone else's iCloud
The scheme begins with ordinary communication. The scammer doesn't rush and first earns trust. Then he tells the victim that he made a fortune on cryptocurrency and offers to teach them the same for free.
To start, you need to deposit money on a "special platform." The first sum is usually small. Then the victim sees their investments growing — but these figures are fake. The person believes everything is working and transfers more and more money. At some point, the scammers simply disappear along with the funds.
Recognizing a fraudster is not difficult. A real investor won't persuade a barely known person to invest and won't demand money be transferred to some website. If this happens, it's best to immediately stop communicating.
There is also a second scheme. The scammer asks a new acquaintance to log into someone else's Apple account. The pretexts are simple:
- help print tickets;
- transfer data;
- restore a phone.
As soon as the person logs into someone else's account, the scammer activates the Find My feature. It allows the device to be locked remotely. After that, money is demanded for unlocking it.
Both schemes are built on deception and pressure. Therefore, one shouldn't rush to trust new acquaintances, should verify what they say about themselves, and should not transfer money for the sake of a relationship.
Healers who don't exist
Scammers have also found a use for neural networks. With their help, they create images of folk healers, elders, and elderly herbalists who supposedly heal for money. The trigger was the story of a Moscow resident: she followed the advice of a virtual healer and ended up in the hospital.
"This case is not a curiosity but an example of a new threat," emphasized Alexandra Pozharskaya, deputy head of the People's Front project "For Borrowers' Rights" and the "Moshelovka" platform.
Previously, real people stood behind such schemes. They could be found and held accountable. Now scammers are moving to completely fictional characters. Such a "healer" has no address, registration, or legal liability, so there is simply no one to look for.
Cryptalist analysis: The fusion of social engineering with generative AI marks a qualitative transition of crypto fraud to a new level: the disappearance of a physical "anchor" for fake personas sharply reduces clearance rates and increases victims' trust. For the market, this is a signal of growing reputational risk — regulators and exchanges will have to invest more actively in user education, since traditional legal protection mechanisms against synthetic identities practically do not work.