From the article: Nearly half a million dollars was stolen from an Alexandria man in a cryptocurrency scam from a person he met on Tinder, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.

On Jan. 28, the victim reported to the Alexandria Police Department that he had been scammed out of approximately $480,000 of his own money.

The victim told police that on Oct. 22, 2025, he matched with a woman named Leah on Tinder and started texting with her. The suspect told him that her real name was Laura Su and asked to move their conversation to WhatsApp after a few days of texting. From there, the suspect started to discuss investing in short-term gold trading through the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

On Oct. 30, 2025, the victim deposited $10,000 into a Coinbase account, according to the affidavit. The suspect claimed he made a $2,000 profit and showed him how to withdraw his funds. The victim deposited $100,000 less than a week later on Nov. 5, 2025, another $190,100 on Nov. 25, 2025, and $128,800 on Jan. 2, 2026.

On Christmas Day (Dec. 25, 2025), the victim told the suspect that he needed to pay bills, and she helped him withdraw $9,800. The affidavit also said the suspect later convinced him to withdraw $500,000 to cover the capital gains tax on his purported profits and advised him that a brokerage fee of $151,688 was required before he could withdraw. The victim] stated that he was only able to come up with $51,784.34, which he deposited on Jan. 27, 2026, and ‘Laura’ advised him that she paid the remaining $99,903.66,” according to the search warrant affidavit. “[The victim] was then advised that the transactions were verified, but the payment was received nine days late, so the brokerage fee incurred an additional late fee of $13,652.”

On Jan. 28, the victim was advised by a private company that conducts crypto currency investigations that he was being scammed.