In a tragic incident, a Cocoa Beach man named Richard Dunlap lost $2.5 million in a crypto scam. It all started with a friend request on Facebook, which soon turned into a daily conversation.
According to reports, the number of crypto-related scams has increased in 2025, with billions stolen and trends like deepfakes and “pig butchering” becoming more prevalent.
Tragic Story of Crypto Scam Victim
Dunlap said he had received a friend request from a woman he didn’t know, but just because they had mutual friends on Facebook, he accepted her request. They soon started chatting on Facebook, which later shifted to WhatsApp. After months of usual conversation between the two, the women began convincing Dunlap to invest in crypto.
Dunlap finally gave in to her request and earned 40% profit on crypto. He even made a $3,800 withdrawal without issue. After noticing the profit, Dunlap emptied his savings and deposited $1.2 million from January to March alone, with another $401k in later months. Then, when his account showed $2.5 million in earnings, he tried to withdraw $395,000, only to realize that he has been blocked.
Dunlap told WKMG News 6, “It wasn’t until then that I fully realized what I had done to myself. You lost all that money.”
“I was enraged…I probably went through all of the normal feelings as somebody feels when they’ve been ripped off,” he added.
Growing Crypto Scam in the US
According to the Chainalysis Report of 2025, various crypto scams, along with romance tropes, are becoming more sophisticated this year. The report says that with over $2.17 billion stolen from cryptocurrency services so far in 2025, this year is more devastating than the entirety of 2024. Most of these scams have emerged in the U.S., Germany, Russia, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea.
Moreover, the Federal Trade Commission says that Americans lost $5.7 billion to investment scams last year, up $1 billion from the previous year.
Dunlap hopes that his story will prevent others from these crypto scams.
