Imagine this: you’ve traded cryptocurrencies and reached 2 million, achieving your first small goal in life, and you’re ready to diversify your risks and look for some reliable investment opportunities.
At this moment, your girlfriend's friend comes to you.
You met in a cryptocurrency group and have known each other for two years. At first, you were just friends, discussing market trends, projects, sharing jokes, and poking fun at the absurdities of the market—gradually, your relationship changed. She would greet you morning and night, send selfies, share her thoughts, talk about how lonely she felt living alone in Beijing, and say that only you made her feel that the world still had some warmth. Unknowingly, you started to develop feelings for her.
She is in the oil business, owns several gas stations, engages in bulk shipping trade, participates in the distribution of Moutai liquor, and has a deposit of 100 million in an overseas trust. Her social media posts showcase either plane tickets or yachts, frequently checking in from different countries; that lifestyle is incredibly appealing to you. She is confident, independent, and even a bit assertive—you begin to feel that she is not just a girlfriend, but someone more capable than you.
You can’t help but marvel at how fate has favored you, allowing you to meet a partner in this cold cryptocurrency world who shares common interests and is willing to navigate the bull and bear markets with you.
One day, she tells you about a collaboration with Sinopec, a short-term funding opportunity with high returns—10% profit in a month. She mentions that she just needs a little more funding to secure the deal and doesn’t want to tell anyone else, just wants you to participate.
You hesitate a bit, but she speaks with such certainty, and since you’ve been dating for a while, you know her character and that she isn’t the type to ask for money outright. She hasn’t formally asked, just said that it would be great if you were willing to participate, but there’s no pressure.
You have 2 million on hand, so you decide to take out 100,000 to give it a try; it’s not a big deal.
Over the next two months, she indeed transfers the interest to you as promised, 10,000 each month, without any delays. This makes you completely let down your guard. You feel that you have not only gained love but also found a reliable business partner. You even start to fantasize about the two of you working on projects together, investing, and making money, like the "power couple" you admire.
Then, the unexpected happens.
She suddenly tells you that the company’s account has been frozen, with several million in goods payments stuck, and now the business can’t continue. Employees are pressing, suppliers are causing a scene, and it’s about to blow up. She says she has gathered most of the funds but needs 300,000 more and asks if you can help. She repeatedly emphasizes: it’s not a loan, it’s an emergency, and she will pay you back as soon as the money is unfrozen in a couple of days.
She is visibly upset, even shedding tears, saying she shouldn’t have passed this pressure onto you, and that she wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t absolutely necessary.
You are stunned. Flashing through your mind are the things she has done for you, the gentle tones of your late-night conversations, and her words when you received the interest, "Don’t worry, I’m a reliable person."
You loosen your grip and transfer the money…
Another young person in the cryptocurrency world scammed out of 200 million
This is the true story of Brother Da Tao.
However, Brother Da Tao’s savings are not 2 million, but 200 million. The investment he made for his girlfriend was not 100,000, but 10 million and 30 million.
And she is not just a "girlfriend" or a "benefactor." Her name is Zhang Bai, and she is a "hunter," part of a mature, well-organized, and clearly divided "romance + investment scam" gang that has been operating for two years. They set up a scheme more intricate than one could imagine—from the glamorous and wealthy persona to the fake romantic relationship, from forged sources of goods, police notices, to fake lawyers, fake police, fake companies, and fake seizures, culminating in layers of escalating "crisis resolution."
On social media, Brother Da Tao recorded a video over 20 minutes long, detailing his experience of being scammed. He could have retired before turning thirty, living a life of driving supercars and traveling the world. Now, he is left with only a phone and these suffocating memories.
After Brother Da Tao transferred 30 million to help unfreeze the account, Zhang Bai, to "thank" him, sent him a Lamborghini Urus, a fully loaded model worth over 4 million.
He thought it was a token of love, only to later find out that the car was also bought with his own money, registered under her friend's company. This is another clever aspect of the scam:
They give you a little return and sweetness—making you believe everything is real.
In April 2023, Brother Da Tao wanted to buy a Ferrari 812 GTS, and Zhang Bai said she had connections to get it at a good price. She suggested buying the car and registering it under a "familiar company" to make the transaction easier and avoid tax scrutiny. Without hesitation, Brother Da Tao transferred another 7 million for the car.
A few days later, she came to him again, saying that because this company was newly registered and didn’t have enough cash flow, the tax authorities suspected "tax evasion," and now the car payment account was frozen, requiring him to transfer more money to go through the proper process. Brother Da Tao chose to trust her again and transferred another 7 million. Over the next two months, Zhang Bai used reasons like "tax investigation," "company liability," and "large fines" to take over 30 million from him. By this time, nearly half of Brother Da Tao’s 100 million had been drained. Yet he continued to trust her.
The subsequent "schemes" became more frequent, almost every month.
In October, there was a problem with the initial mask shipment, leading to a "fraud case involving epidemic materials," and she tearfully sought help, prompting Brother Da Tao to transfer over 10 million again.
In November, company employees were taken away by the police, and the records mentioned Brother Da Tao as a "key figure in money laundering," needing someone to take the blame. She suggested spending 10 million to settle it, including a "compensation" of 3 million to Liu Yuqiao to go to jail. After hesitating, Brother Da Tao transferred the money.
In December, there were "sudden audits" across the country. Accounts were frozen in the east, and tax authorities were questioning in the west; every few days brought a new "crisis," each requiring hundreds of thousands or millions to "settle," with the transfers unable to keep up with the rapidly changing script.
…………
By July 2024, Brother Da Tao was completely drained.
He sold all his supercars, and his accounts were nearly empty. He finally began to awaken, organizing all past chat records, transfer receipts, and travel arrangements, and he reported to the police.
The most ironic part is that he went to the police station with Zhang Bai. In other words, at the moment he reported the crime, he still didn’t know that the "girlfriend" sitting next to him was actually one of the masterminds behind this astonishing scam.
Brother Da Tao is not the only one scammed
The cryptocurrency world has never lacked myths, but it has also never lacked nightmares. You see some people becoming rich overnight, but you don’t see many others who have lost everything, some who have been liquidated in trading, and others who have been scammed through a dual setup of "love + investment," draining their fortunes…
In recent years, the cryptocurrency world has become a "hot commodity."
The cryptocurrency space is too young, too lucrative, too chaotic, and too lonely, gathering a group of people who quickly become wealthy, experience strong emotional fluctuations, and have blurred social boundaries. And these individuals are precisely the ideal targets in the eyes of scammers.
Brother Da Tao is not the only one who has been scammed. It’s not just cryptocurrency players.
Recently, a popular UP master, Da Xiang Ge, who has been in the "Top 100" for three consecutive years, publicly shared his personal experience of a three-year-long, multi-million dollar scam in his video. Initially, he was drawn into a "restaurant investment"—the other party was a big shot running a high-end restaurant, with connections, financial resources, and a grand setup, even letting him taste the food, stay over, meet friends, and discuss the future. A meal, a car, a luxury apartment—each seemingly real "proof" stacked up, ultimately leading him to transfer 2.4 million without any defenses.
No contracts, no agreements, just the words "Don’t worry, I’ll help you make money."
Then came the constant escalation—opening branches, forming a group, entering major projects, eventually leading him to gather 10 million and bring in six friends to join. Da Xiang Ge not only put in all his savings but also personally guaranteed, bringing in trusted friends to "take a shot together."
In the end, predictably—the other party ran away.
The project fell through, and Da Xiang Ge was left with over 12.49 million in personal and joint debts, even selling his Maybach and using all his parents' and grandmother's savings, still owing relatives 900,000. He said, "I’m not afraid of having nothing; I’m afraid of letting down those who believed in me."
You may not be in the cryptocurrency world, nor have you traded contracts, but as long as you possess these three characteristics: you’ve made money quickly, you desire a bigger breakthrough, and you once believed in someone who would "take you to the next level," then you are one of the target groups.
They will appear when you are making the most money, discussing strategies with you, praising your insight; they will stay up late chatting about market trends, saying they are lonely too, believe in fate, and have stories to share. They seem to understand you very well. They even understand you better than you understand yourself.
They know how to weave stories, with backgrounds more exciting than scripts. They know how to manipulate, giving you a little sweetness each time, then creating the next crisis. They don’t need you to transfer all your funds at once. They just need you to "trust once more" at every juncture. They are setting up a psychological battle.
They are not in a hurry; they can chat with you about market trends for half a year, be friends for a year, or even accompany you slowly from a bull market to a bear market, making their move subtly.
Brother Da Tao and Da Xiang Ge are undoubtedly the unfortunate ones.
But if, after reading this story, you still think to yourself, "I won’t be scammed," then please go back to the beginning of the article and read it again, putting yourself in their shoes.
The truly frightening thing is not being scammed itself, but the confidence that such things will never happen to you. Because, unbeknownst to you, they may already be lurking around you, lying in your WeChat contacts, hanging in your Telegram contacts, or even friends you have already met.
They are waiting for you to say the next word that exposes your trust or greed, and then with a drink, a collaboration, or a phrase like "Bro, I really admire you," the scammer will make their move.
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