Florida authorities investigate cryptocurrency fraud over $317,000 theft

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Florida authorities say a Daytona Beach Shores man lost more than $317,000 in a cryptocurrency investment scam. New federal records say a man was snared by an attractive stranger after he received a text asking for help walking his dog while he was out.

The man, whose identity remains secret from Florida authorities and is identified only as Victim 1 in federal court records, said he responded to a text message from an unknown man. He tells an attractive woman that the number is incorrect, but notices that the chatty stranger continues the conversation. The stranger introduced himself as Astrid Orlov and said he lived with his uncle in Lake Nona, a downtown area of Orlando.

Florida authorities report $317,000 in fake investment fraud

The Florida native claimed that things quickly started getting serious and they started talking frequently. The man claimed he couldn’t see her during the call, but quickly moved the conversation to WhatsApp and then to a video chat. Mr. Orlov claimed that the reason he couldn’t see her face was because the internet connection was poor in the places she traveled to, but Mr. Orlov believed that because he had no reason to suspect her.

The filing did not indicate whether the tone of their conversation was platonic or romantic, but their conversation eventually moved from everyday conversations and medical exams to money, according to court records. The two had a long discussion about investments, especially gold and digital assets. Mr. Orlov has successfully traded gold online, and he attributed much of his success to his uncle, who monitors algorithms to determine what happens to the price of gold.

Orlov eventually succeeded in convincing the man to invest in the trading platform XM DeFi, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando. In response to Orlov’s insistence that he wanted to move things along quickly, the man transferred $5,000 from his bank account to a crypto account he had opened for her, purchased Bitcoin, and sent the Bitcoin to the address Orlov provided for the XM DeFi trading platform.

Scammers fooled victims with early profits

Federal court records show that Mr. Orlov instructed the Florida native how to buy and sell digital assets through his website for a profit. “After the initial investment, Victim 1 was able to view amounts on the website that he learned were fictitious ‘returns,'” court documents state. The man said everything appears to be legitimate as he was able to withdraw approximately $278 in digital assets from his XM DeFi account to his Crypto.com account.

“After Victim 1 first successfully withdrew funds that appeared to be profits from the website, he believed that with ‘Orlov’s’ help, he could successfully trade gold and earn large sums of money on the platform,” federal court records state. Orloff claimed the man paid him an additional $312,000 between February and May 2024, believing he was trading on the trading platform.

“During this time, Victim 1 made ‘trades’ on and through the ‘XM Defi’ fraudulent website. Almost every time he made a trade, his investment on the website appeared to increase. Victim 1 stated that during this time, he appeared to have lost only a small amount of money on two ‘trades’,” court records state. However, by April 2024, the man began to question the investment overall due to missing funds from his XM DeFi account balance.

When he complained to Orlov, she insisted that nothing was wrong and that she was a real person. She also sent a photo of her Florida driver’s license, which turned out to be fake. Further investigation by federal authorities revealed that there was no individual with that name in the state. The Florida man wasn’t the only one to fall victim to this scam, authorities have identified at least 16 people who lost more than $4 million to strangers.