A retired journalist says he lost his life savings — nearly $300,000 in 10 weeks — after a scammer posing as a young woman lured him into a so-called “pig-butchering” scheme.
Al Levine, an 82-year-old former Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter, said it started with an unsolicited text message from one “Daisy Miller” inviting him to a cookout. Even after the texter said they thought they were contacting someone else, Levine kept answering friendly questions about things like his age.
“I took 10 years off my 82,” he wrote in a first-person account for the AARP web site.
Levine said the exchange quickly turned into a relationship with a woman claiming to run a jewelry business in Los Angeles.
According to the scribe, “Daisy” began telling him that she “wanted to spend her October birthday with me.”
“Glamorous photos followed,” Levin wrote.
“She was young and gorgeous. A flirtation broke out.”
Levine wrote that the text messages between the two “quickly moved from budding romance to business.”
“I believe there are many beautiful things waiting for us,” read one text message from “Daisy.”
Levine wrote that “Daisy” then suggested that he “join her in investing in short-term gold futures.”
Levine, who resigned from the Journal-Constitution in 2005 after he was caught plagiarising, admitted that he was “lonely” and “believed her despite all the red flags waving in my face.”
“What made it so believable was her tactic of telling me where she was and sending pictures along the way – the San Diego Zoo, Catalina Island,” Levine wrote.
“One Friday night, we cooked a meal together through texts and screenshots.”
Levine said he harbored “suspicions” about “Daisy” — going so far as to vet her with the Los Angeles Police Department’s fraud division — though he wrote that he “came up empty.”
He also did a reverse image search on Google, “but 10 photos revealed nothing.”
“After those cursory efforts, I let down my guard completely.”
According to Levine, “Daisy” started showing him screenshots of successful investments she made by trading in gold through a website called SunX.
While there is a legitimate trading site known as SunX.io, scammers have been using an imposter site known as “SunX” to “carry out illegal fundraising, investment scams, and Ponzi-like activities,” according to the real company’s website.
“I had no idea I was dealing with a fake site until it was too late,” Levine wrote.
He said he told his two daughters about “Daisy” — even showing them photos.
“How do you know she’s real?” one of them asked. “I hope you’re not doing any kind of trading with her.”
Despite his family’s advice, Levine wrote that he was “blind to all the warnings.”
“Daisy” nudged him into trading, and Levine dipped in with $20,000 — lying to his longtime financial adviser about needing the cash for a car. Early “profits” hooked him fast.
“The first night I invested, I almost did handstands when I seemed to make a profit of $1,920,” Levine wrote.
Within days, he pulled another $70,000, then emptied the rest of his $133,000 portfolio under false pretenses, even as his daughters warned he was being scammed.
He ignored them — and doubled down, taking out a $20,000 loan after “Daisy” promised bigger returns.
By early October, his account appeared to show $1.3 million. It was all fiction.
When he tried to withdraw funds, he was told to pay $216,000 in bogus taxes — the final red flag.
A relative later confirmed the trading platform was fake and the money had been funneled to scammers.
Levine lost $271,000 total — everything he had.
Now living on Social Security and a pension, he’s been forced to sell off personal valuables to get by.
Investigators say the money is likely gone for good, wired overseas through channels that are nearly impossible to trace or recover.
As for “Daisy,” she never existed — and her images were likely stolen or AI-generated.
The fallout hit hardest at home, where his daughters say the deception shattered their trust — damage that may take far longer to repair than the financial loss, according to Levine.
A pig-butchering scam is a long-running fraud that blends phony romance with fake investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.
Scammers build trust over weeks or months, then lure victims onto fraudulent trading platforms that show fake profits to encourage larger deposits.
Once the victim tries to withdraw, they’re hit with bogus fees — and eventually the scammer disappears with the money, which is usually unrecoverable.
Incidentally, “Daisy Miller” is the title of a celebrated 19th-century novella by American writer Henry James, though Levine made no mention of that in his essay.
Experts say the scheme follows a calculated playbook.
Former cybercriminal Brett Johnson — once dubbed the “Internet Godfather” by the Secret Service — told The Post that scammers must first win a victim’s trust before going after their money.
“In order for me to defraud you … I have to get you to trust me,” Johnson, who stole millions through online fraud schemes, told The Post.
He described the painstaking process during which victims are gradually lured into the scam.
“It doesn’t start with, ‘Send me money,’” Johnson said, noting scammers first build a relationship before making any financial ask.
“He’s not looking for one payday; he’s looking for everything that you’ve got,” he said.
Johnson said the best defense is simple: don’t send money.
“Money should never be given at all,” he said, adding that slick photos or even video calls shouldn’t be trusted.
“Photos, voice notes, video calls — that’s not proof in today’s age of deepfakes,” Johnson said.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
