A Toronto man is warning others to be careful after he says he was scammed out of $200,000 from a Tinder match.
David Aning tells Now Toronto the incident occurred recently after he started communicating with a man he matched with on Tinder back in March, which also included video calls.
He says conversations involved Aning’s goals and aspirations, which included him wanting to go back to school, a goal that would have come at a hefty price.
“[He] had suggested doing like a short investment through trading options, through a site that they used,” he told Now Toronto. “I started adding money to that account, and they were, you know, helping me to trade.”
Aning says everything seemed normal while he was transferring his funds in installments, and said he had no suspicions.
“I thought that I was making money,” he said.
Until June came and he went to withdraw his gains.
“I couldn’t pull it out [and] the customer service that was normally responsive was no longer responsive.”
Aning says that he quickly attempted to report the incident to Toronto police, which took nearly a week to respond due to it being a non-emergency situation. After finally getting in touch with a detective, he says he was met with little to no hope, all-while his Tinder match was still attempting to contact him.
“They kind of just really threw their hands up in the air and just kind of said, ‘Yeah, this is going to happen, we have no success in getting people their money back,’” he said.
Aning says he was told by the detective that in the case they find the person but they’re out of the country then there is nothing they will be able to do.
“I don’t understand why you have a department for fraud if you can’t really do anything,” he said.
Aning says the funds were taken from his line of credit and savings he put aside for a home.
He says the situation has taken a serious toll on his mental health.
“I didn’t think my life was gonna end like this,” he said. “I had friends and family that surrounded me. I’ve had years of therapy for other reasons, and so I was able to tap into that.”
Aning says he doesn’t think he’ll ever get his money back, but hopes his story can help prevent similar situations from happening to other people.
“I want to kind of keep going and start building more awareness about this, trying to build more momentum for change in policy,” he said. “I feel police feel that their hands are tied or they just don’t have the capabilities to do what’s needed to solve these types of crimes.”
He says he is also warning people to be more vigilant with their money.
“If you don’t think you can part with that money, do not part with that money…I think that that’s the bigger lesson here,” he said
