I am Novak, and when this nightmare began, I was already fighting to survive.
I had just come out of hell — a ransomware attack at my job in 2020 that I helped fix, a brutal divorce in 2023, and then being fired after 28 years by the very company I helped save. I was exhausted, emotionally drained, and trying to rebuild what was left of my life. Then my young son was diagnosed with celiac disease. Watching him suffer pushed me to speak up — I made one single public Facebook post to raise awareness. That one post changed everything.
In early October 2024, a woman calling herself “Ailis Danner” commented on that post. She praised me for standing up for my son and said Facebook suggested me as a friend. I ignored it at first. Then I added her back. I won’t lie — I found her attractive. That was enough for her to move in.
She messaged me on Facebook Messenger, and soon we were talking every single day. Morning to night. About life, work, the weather, our pasts. She told me she worked for the parent company of Calvin Klein in New York, near Madison Avenue. I checked everything. Every photo. Reverse image searches. I’m in IT. I’ve dealt with ransomware. I know criminals exist. I was careful.
Two days in, she video-called me on WhatsApp. Fifteen minutes. Webcam on. Face matched the photos. Jewelry matched. Tattoos matched. Nothing looked fake. I even checked her phone number — nothing came up. She explained it away by saying she’d only been in the U.S. for six years. When I found one of her photos on another woman’s social media, she convinced me that woman was impersonating her. Looking back, that was the trap tightening.
From 7 a.m. to midnight, every day, she was there. Voice notes. Messages. Photos. Never sexual. Never rushed. Just constant emotional presence. I felt safe. I felt seen. I felt like I finally had something good again. Those old ’80s love songs? I believed I might actually get that kind of love.
Then “Ailis Danner” slowly shifted the conversation to investing. Cryptocurrency. Passive income. No pressure — just stories about how she and her sister were doing well. Months later, she introduced me to a website called defiai.top. She said it was how she made money. She showed me results. She showed me confidence.
I moved money from Chase, Ally, Wells Fargo — all legitimate banks — into major crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Crypto.com. My banks warned me. I ignored them because I trusted the exchanges. Once the money was there, she guided me step by step into defiai.top through an app called Onchain.
The minimum buy-in was $40,000. They promised daily interest. And I got it. Thousands in visible profits. I started small. I made $1,500. Then I put in more. I watched the balance climb past $110,000. It felt real because it looked real.
Then the pressure started. The minimum jumped to $100,000. She sent screenshots — orders worth millions, earning tens of thousands in interest. She calmed every fear I had. From January to March, my money “grew,” and our relationship deepened. Every day. Every holiday. Every detail of my life.
Eventually, the minimum hit $500,000. She wired me $250,000 so we could “invest together.” I drained everything I had to match it. Everything. I couldn’t even pay my bills anymore.
When I tried to withdraw just $4,000 to survive, I was blocked. Customer service told me I had to pay a “gas tax fee” — 5.6% of my account — from an external wallet. By then, I had transferred $280,000 — my entire life savings. And “Ailis Danner” disappeared.
That was the day my world collapsed. A friend texted me about something called a pig-butchering scam. I read it — and it was my story, word for word. Every step. Every manipulation.
I lost everything. My future. My children’s college funds. My ability to support my family. My life. Gone.
I reported everything — FBI, IRS, local police, county prosecutors. I worked with cyber intelligence firms connected to DHS. I haven’t slept properly in years. I had to borrow six months of expenses from my 401k just to survive.
Through investigators, I learned this wasn’t just some random woman. The operation was tied to Chen Zhi, a Chinese-Cambodian businessman indicted for wire fraud and money laundering. He ran forced-labor scam compounds in Cambodia — places where people are held against their will and forced to scam victims like me, stealing billions worldwide.
Chen Zhi was arrested, extradited to China, and the DOJ seized roughly $15 billion in bitcoin. But unless a victim fund is created, I may never see a dollar of what was stolen from me.
And the worst part? I’ve seen “Ailis” again online. Different name. Different birthday. Same face. Same trap. Still hunting.
So hear me clearly:
If you meet someone online and don’t meet them in person immediately — walk away. No matter how real it feels. No matter how careful you think you are.
I was cautious. I was experienced. I was targeted because I was vulnerable.
This wasn’t romance.
This wasn’t investing.
This was psychological warfare.
And it nearly destroyed me.