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A Bay Area widower, grieving his wife, fell for a "Tina" online. He thought he found new love. Instead, he lost his life savings to a crypto "pig butchering" scam. Heartbreaking warning. #RomanceScam #CryptoScam #PigButchering #FinancialFraud
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0:01
A retired East Bay businessman still
0:03
devastated by the loss of his wife
0:04
thought he had found new love. Instead,
0:07
he got hooked by a cruel scam and ended
0:09
up losing a million dollars.
0:11
Yeah. His entire life savings is gone.
0:13
And as Seven on your side Stephanie
0:14
Sierra explains, that isn't even the
0:16
worst of it. Stephanie is live in the
0:18
newsroom with his story. Steph.
0:20
Yes. Amma and Larry, this is a
0:22
heartbreaking loss for a longtime Bay
0:23
Area businessman. And instead of a
0:25
comfortable retirement in his quiet
0:27
Brentwood neighborhood, he lost all his
0:30
savings. And now he may lose his home,
0:33
too. Larry Sorenson returns home to an
0:36
empty house each day, still feeling the
0:39
loss of his wife of 35 years.
0:42
Losing her was tough. That was that was
0:44
tough. It was real love. And and you
0:48
know, I lost that. We put the tile in
0:50
after we moved in. Larry and his wife
0:52
Rhonda had barely finished building out
0:54
their Brentwood home, adding a garden
0:56
with a swimming pool and a bar when she
0:59
died of cancer last December.
1:01
We drew it out on the concrete how we
1:05
wanted it.
1:06
Then amid his grief, life took an
1:09
unthinkable turn.
1:10
Yes. In July, early July,
1:13
a text from someone named Tina said,
1:16
"Hi, Caitlyn. I'm back from my trip to
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Napa Valley. Can you drop off my dog by
1:20
tomorrow afternoon? Larry replied, "You
1:23
have the wrong person here." Tina wrote
1:25
back, "Aren't you Caitlyn, the owner of
1:27
the LA pet store?" Larry said, "No."
1:30
Tina replied, "I'm so sorry. Maybe
1:32
Caitlyn gave me the wrong number. I hope
1:34
I didn't disturb you."
1:35
And then I just said, "No worries."
1:37
Then another reply, "Thank you. You are
1:40
so kind. I am Tina from LA. Are you also
1:43
a dog lover?" Larry texted back, "I like
1:45
dogs, but don't currently have one." and
1:48
she started going on about, "You seem
1:50
like a nice guy."
1:51
And the next day, more texts.
1:53
She got up in the morning, apparently
1:54
felt like the conversation was great the
1:56
day before, so she was excited. She
1:58
wanted to talk to me again.
1:59
Tina told him she ran a small energy
2:01
firm. He said he was a retired roofing
2:03
company owner. She said she invested in
2:05
real estate, ranches, wineries, and
2:08
crypto. Larry was intrigued. "You have
2:10
drawn my interest," he replied.
2:12
I told her a little bit about my life
2:14
and losing my wife. She suggested they
2:17
talk over WhatsApp instead
2:18
because it's encrypted, it's safer. And
2:21
then she said, "Would you send me a
2:22
picture of yourself so I can see who I'm
2:24
talking with?"
2:25
So, they exchanged photos
2:27
and then she explained her whole
2:29
beginning of her life being abandoned by
2:31
her mother, you know, and you start
2:32
feeling like you want to comfort her a
2:34
little bit. So, it it just kept growing
2:36
and growing to where you started really
2:38
having feelings for for this person, you
2:41
know.
2:41
They started chatting every day. I'd
2:43
wake up in the morning and either she
2:45
would be messaging me with a little
2:47
saying like, "Good morning, sweetheart.
2:50
Hope the sun shines on you today." At
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night, we'd say good night to each
2:53
other. You know, just like a
2:54
relationship, and yes, I'd look forward
2:56
to those.
2:57
She told him what she would wear if they
2:59
met. I am hooked, he replied. Can't wait
3:01
to meet you. After months of grieving,
3:04
Larry thought he'd stumbled on new love.
3:07
I got emotionally excited about it. I
3:09
really did. That first initial part of
3:12
falling in love with someone is always
3:14
so exciting. And she started showing
3:16
emotions and caring about me and about
3:19
what I did and it was uh very uplifting.
3:21
During the next three months, Larry
3:23
declared his love over and over saying,
3:25
"You are so interesting, intelligent,
3:27
caring, beautiful inside and out, and I
3:30
couldn't help falling in love with you,
3:31
Tina." And
3:32
emotionally, I felt wonderful. I I
3:34
really did.
3:35
Yet, she would never agree to meet in
3:37
person. She demanded he keep their
3:39
relationship a secret and one day they
3:42
would meet, maybe mid-occtober.
3:44
This gal is supposedly 45 years old. I'm
3:46
71. I was, you know, starting to cut
3:49
back on my food, working out again. Lost
3:51
about 30 lbs. I went out and bought a
3:53
new suit.
3:54
It's a gray color.
3:55
Little did he know it was all a trap.
3:57
Medium gray.
3:59
She was not really Tina. She was a
4:01
crypto scam organization out to get his
4:03
$1 million. Larry had developed real
4:06
feelings for a fake person. For three
4:09
months, he believed he could have a life
4:10
with Tina. Now, Tina said she could make
4:13
him rich.
4:14
She was telling me how she had $10
4:15
million in her crypto account. She
4:17
showed me where she had traded 3 million
4:18
and got a million. Uh, and this happens
4:21
like in five minutes.
4:22
Tina said her aunt at Morgan Stanley
4:24
would tell them when to trade. She
4:26
guided him to wire money from his bank
4:28
to Coinbase to Crypto.com. They
4:31
practiced with play money at first, then
4:33
small amounts. and she'd say, "We need
4:35
to prepare. Open your onchain and send
4:37
me a screenshot." And she would show me
4:39
on the screenshot which one to click. It
4:41
looked like the money was coming in in
4:43
large amounts. She kept trying to get me
4:46
to put more money into this account
4:48
because it could get like 50% return.
4:50
So, he tapped his $1 million IRA
4:53
account, putting in $500,000 at first.
4:56
Then, days later, another 500 grand. It
4:59
wiped out his retirement savings. But it
5:02
appeared his $1 million had grown to 2.4
5:06
million. Tina said, "Put in more."
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She wanted me to get money out of my
5:10
house, money for my kids, anywhere I
5:11
could get it. Friends, relatives.
5:13
Banks turned him down for loans. So he
5:15
asked his stepdaughter for money.
5:17
I said, "Megan, you don't have a couple
5:19
hundred thousand you'd be able to throw
5:21
in this if you knew you could make a
5:22
profit of it, right?" She goes, "Larry,
5:24
this is a scam. This is a scam." And she
5:26
started crying.
5:27
Frantically, he and Megan tried to pull
5:29
money out of the crypto account. But
5:31
there's no money. It's it's it gives you
5:33
this window.
5:34
It wasn't there. He just lost $1
5:37
million, all of his retirement. And
5:40
worse, he may have to pay $400,000 in
5:43
taxes for drawing all the funds from his
5:45
IRA account.
5:47
It means he may have to sell the house
5:49
he built with his wife.
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My wife has all been a part of it, and I
5:52
feel her here. So, I I didn't want to
5:55
sell it. He contacted the FBI, the FTC,
5:58
the Secret Service, but says no one can
6:00
help. It's a crime so common it's got an
6:03
ugly nickname, pig butchering. Fatten
6:06
the pig, then slaughter it. To this day,
6:08
Tina is still trying to get Larry to put
6:10
more money in his account. She writes,
6:13
"Good morning, my love." "It's not a
6:15
good morning," he replied.
6:17
"What I've done is completely,
6:19
completely flipped my life upside down.
6:22
So awful. Larry has all but given up on
6:25
ever getting that money back. Now, he
6:27
shared his story with us to alert other
6:29
seniors and potential victims of the red
6:31
flags he ignored. Now, we do have a list
6:34
of helpful resources to protect yourself
6:36
from this fraud over on our website,
6:38
abc7news.com. But Larry and this story a
6:41
tragic reminder you can just never be
6:43
too careful
6:44
and really sad for somebody who was
6:46
vulnerable and just wrong place, wrong
6:48
time, wrong situation. We're seeing more
6:50
and more of these cases of this type of
6:52
fraud. What has been the financial
6:55
impact, Stephanie?
6:56
Well, Larry, I I can tell you the scale
6:58
of this problem has grown exponentially.
7:00
I mean, according to the FBI, pig
7:02
butchering scams are now the costliest
7:04
type of cyber crime investment fraud
7:07
with reported losses of more than$6 and
7:08
a half billion dollars last year alone.
#Seniors & Retirement
#Death & Tragedy