Linda M., a 59-year-old widow from Colorado, never thought she’d be using a dating app. After losing her husband five years ago, she spent years focusing on work, friends, and healing. But as her kids moved out and life slowed down, loneliness started creeping in.
At a friend’s encouragement, she downloaded a popular dating app for people over 50. That’s where she met Daniel—a charming, polite man who claimed to be a civil engineer working on contract in the Middle East. His profile was thoughtful, and their conversations felt warm and genuine. He didn’t rush things. He asked about her favorite books, her past, and her dreams.
Over the next two months, they spoke every day—texts, emails, even long late-night calls. Linda had never felt more seen.
Then came the twist.
Daniel said he was facing a business emergency. A bank issue had frozen his overseas account, and he couldn’t access funds to pay for customs clearance on materials needed to complete a project. He was frantic and ashamed and said he didn’t know who else to turn to. He promised to pay her back—every cent—once his contract closed in a few weeks.
Linda hesitated, but she cared for him. She wired the first $10,000. Then $15,000. When the delays continued, she sent more. Over the next month, she transferred a total of $64,000. And then—silence.
Daniel vanished.
His number was disconnected. The email bounced. The dating app account? Deleted. It didn’t sink in all at once. At first, Linda thought something had happened to him. But when she looked up his photos using reverse image search, she found them on a dozen scam warning forums under different names.
She had been scammed. By someone she thought she loved.
The emotional pain hit her even harder than the financial loss. She couldn’t eat or sleep. She didn’t want to tell her kids—she felt too embarrassed. She filed a police report and called her bank, but the money was gone. No one seemed to care.
Eventually, she confided in a close friend, who had read about romance scam victims recovering funds through crypto tracing. That’s how Linda found Financial Options Recovery.
We spoke with her directly, not just about the money but the betrayal. Because recovery, we believe, starts with empathy.
Once she shared the wire transfer details and the email headers, our team traced the funds through multiple international accounts. The scammer had used a combination of crypto wallet laundering and foreign remittance services to hide the trail.
But we didn’t stop there.
We worked with compliance teams at a major exchange where part of Linda’s funds were converted into stablecoins. After weeks of back-and-forth, documentation, and legal reporting, we recovered $38,000. We’re still tracking leads on the remaining amount.