A widow from San Jose has fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam, losing nearly $1 million after being deceived by a man she met on Facebook. The scammer, who posed as a wealthy businessman, persuaded her to invest her retirement savings and funds from a second mortgage into a fraudulent crypto platform. Her account was subsequently frozen, and she was asked to pay an additional $1 million to unfreeze it. The scam was identified as a common fraud pattern by ChatGPT, leading to her suspicion. According to FBI data, online scams targeting seniors resulted in $9.3 billion in losses in 2024, with many victims' funds being transferred overseas, making recovery efforts challenging.