Bitcoin ATM Fraud Scams Target Elderly, Clay County Sheriff's Office Warns

Cases of Bitcoin ATM fraud have started popping up in Clay County and now the Sheriff’s Office is warning people to be alert

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Cases of Bitcoin ATM fraud have started popping up in Clay County and now the Sheriff’s Office is warning people to be alert after a deputy saved an elderly woman from becoming the scam’s next victim.

Clay County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Layne is currently the supervisor over community affairs, but he previously supervised the financial crimes unit which makes him an expert on Bitcoin ATM fraud.

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Layne said within recent months, the CCSO financial crimes unit has investigated between 15 and 20 Bitcoin ATM fraud cases. He said in one of those cases, he was at the right place and at the right time when he recognized signs of a potential scam that led him to believe a much older woman was being targeted by a Bitcoin ATM scammer.

“I was at a local convenience store making a purchase and as I was on my way out of the store, I noticed an elderly woman standing in front of a Bitcoin ATM. Typically, that generation does not trade a lot in cryptocurrency because it’s relatively new on the market. She was in the middle of a phone call on speakerphone, and I could hear a male on the other end of the phone who was giving her instruction on how to use the Bitcoin ATM,” Layne said “She asked the man on the phone, now what do I do?”

Layne said he got closer to the woman and could hear the man on the phone explaining to her how to log onto the ATM and make a deposit.

“I immediately stopped her. I knew she was being victimized. If you were going to use that technology, you would go into that store knowing how to use that technology. It was an immediate red flag for me,” Layne said.

At that point, he intervened and explained to the woman that he was a law enforcement officer and that the man on the phone was trying to scam her out of her money.

“He had convinced her that this was the only way to protect her money. He created a sense of urgency in her that she had to do this to protect her money. Unfortunately for her, the minute she made that deposit, her money was gone. It was not refundable, and it was not reversible in any way, shape, or form,” Layne said.

To an extent, the transaction was also untraceable by law enforcement.

“The problem is most of these scammers are behind virtual private networks or VPN, so you would just be chasing down a rabbit hole back and forth and you would never find the true source of it,” Layne said.

Layne said crooks who pull off this kind of scam are typically located in another country, sometimes countries the U.S. Government doesn’t have good relations with.

The investigation into the woman’s encounter with the scammer began when she made an internet search for an Xfinity customer service line. Layne believes the woman either clicked the wrong link or dialed the wrong phone number because it put her in contact with someone who was not an Xfinity employee.

“The victim called the number and spoke with a female who said she was with this business, and they had noticed transactions on her banking account that looked fraudulent. The first person she spoke to was in on the scam. The woman on the line told the victim she needed to transfer the victim to the victim’s bank. She puts the victim on hold and then a male scammer picks up the line and identifies himself as a representative of her financial institution which she has already identified for the scammers, so they know what she’s talking about,” Layne said.

Layne said the scammer identified himself as a bank employee and then told the woman there was fraud on her account and that she needed to protect her money.

“He went as far as to tell her that she needed to withdraw all her money from the bank to protect it. If the bank asks why, tell them you had an emergency. Don’t tell the reason because they will try to keep your money and won’t let you have it,” Layn said.

According to Layne, the victim was an easy target, not necessarily because she was elderly, but because she was not tech-savvy and she believed everything the scammer was telling her.

비트코인 ATM 사기는 여러 가지 방법으로 이루어지지만 가장 일반적인 방법은 전화나 문자 메시지를 이용하는 것입니다. 사기꾼은 법 집행관, 기술 지원 담당자 등 정부 직원은 물론 합법적인 기업인 것처럼 가장합니다. 사기꾼이 목표로 삼은 사람에게 연락하면, 목표가 된 사람이 자신의 은행 계좌에서 비트코인 ATM으로 신속하게 돈을 입금해야 하는 이유를 시간에 민감한 이유를 찾아냅니다. 사기꾼은 심지어 피해자가 사기꾼의 암호화폐 계좌로 현금을 직접 이체할 수 있는 QR 코드를 제공하기까지 합니다.

비트코인 ATM 사기를 통한 막대한 금전 손실 증가에 대한 연방거래위원회(FTC) 보고서에 따르면 피해자들은 손실을 입었습니다

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