Tho Vu, who spent nearly her entire life savings after being tricked by a crypto scammer posing as a man named Ze Zhao on the dating app Hinge, in Gaithersburg, Md., Feb. 16, 2022. Romance scams — the term for online scams that involve feigning romantic interest to gain a victim’s trust — have increased in the pandemic. (Schaun Champion/The New York Times)
