Types of Romance Scams - The Oil Rig Scam

I swear to you, this is a real thing, I've met more than one.

You connect with this handsome, tall, slightly older guy on the dating app. He lives a couple towns away from you, which is a huge bonus when you live right outside NYC. He's Italian (or from somewhere else in Europe, maybe Spain) and has been living here for about 10 (or 5 or 7) years. He's an underwater welder (or ironworker, or engineer) and owns his own business. He is a catch!

He asks that you switch from the dating app to WhatsApp (or Skype or Telegram), as soon as you have the discussion about what you're looking for in a person, which it turns out is the same exact thing! So you begin texting there. Odd that his number is from Texas, but maybe he's just being cautious. You should have thought of that too. Quickly after that you have your first call, he has such a beautiful accent!

He has one child, a daughter, who lives with her mother in Rome/Madrid. He has no other family, his parents and sister had all passed away. She was his world, and he was very excited that she was about to come visit for Christmas (or Easter). Unfortunate for you though, because of course she has to be his primary focus, so you won't be able to meet until after she leaves. Of course you understand.

Over the next few days you text and talk as much as possible. You share photos of each other with your children. You're falling so hard for him, he says all of the right things, all the time. He knows you're his soulmate, you were meant for each other. You get butterflies in your belly when you hear from him. He even puts you on the phone with his daughter at one point to say hello. That must mean he really is serious! You decide that you don't want to wait so long, and he wants you to meet his daughter before she leaves, so you decide to have NYE together. This is the most wonderful plan ever!

Your family is concerned that you're falling for someone so quickly that you haven't even met yet. They just don't understand, and you're just about to meet anyway, so it's all fine. To appease them you Google Lens the photos he's sent you, but nothing comes up. He's clean, they can all just stop worrying!

And then he calls and gives you the painful news that he got the contract he's been working on for 6 months. It's a multi-million dollar job, this was huge. Unfortunately he was going to be away in Alaska for 2 weeks. But you're not allowed to be bummed because the sad part is he has to leave in 2 days, and therefore has to send his daughter home early. And that means no time for you. You now have to wait 2 weeks longer to meet him. Ugh. But it's ok, because he tells you that he loves you for the first time. Wow, it's so soon, it's only been a week, but yes, you think you're in love with him too!

He keeps you updated as much as possible, but the internet is spotty on the rig. He sends you a surprise that he is bubbling excited to give you, a photo of a gift he had made. It was a framed picture of you, a photo you had sent him. He keeps it with him on his bedside table. He is so unbelievably romantic! He says he wants to marry you, and you are the happiest girl in the world. What an exciting 8 days it's been!

The job is taking longer than expected, he needs more supplies. He asks you to log into his bank account to place the order and then make the payment for it in crypto. He talks you through it, but the order won't go through. He asks you to transfer the money to your own bank account and to order the supplies from there. It's $500k, that's a lot of money. But he needs the supplies, and the longer he doesn't have them the longer it will be until you can meet. All you have to do is transfer the money to your account, convert it and buy the crypto and then send it to the supplier's account. He'll talk you through the entire thing, he needs you, he has no one else who can help him. This is your future husband, why are you hesitating?

What do you do?

What did I do?