COLUMBUS, Ohio — An elderly woman in Worthington was scammed out of $280,000 after falling for a cryptocurrency scam. But the Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s new Electronic Fraud Investigation unit managed to recover $130,000 of her money.
Scott Stranahan, special agent supervisor with BCI, said their biggest challenge in these investigations is time.
"The sooner we get involved, the better suited we are able to help,” Stranahan said.
The victim in Worthington first reported the scam to the Worthington Police Department. The department then reached out to BCI at the end of July.
A 75-year-old woman reported receiving a pop-up message on her computer warning her that she was the victim of fraud. She then contacted the phone number on the pop-up and was told fraudulent activity was observed on her husband’s bank account.
The scammer told the woman to withdraw $1,000 from her account and deposit the money into a Bitcoin ATM machine. The situation then continued to escalate as she continued to comply with the scammer’s requests.
Stranahan said there are some warning signs people should be looking out for.
"At no point in time should you be calling any of those people, any of those phone numbers, those bad actors that you wind up speaking to as a victim, they're so convincing,” Stranahan said.
Stranahan said the bad actors direct people to deplete their bank accounts, so its important to know what to look out for.
"If you're the victim, truly a victim of one of those scams, you shouldn't have to deposit any of those funds you currently have into a bitcoin ATM machine or a cryptocurrency ATM machine,” Stranahan said.
While the elderly population is most commonly targeted for these types of scams, Stranahan said it can happen to anyone, so it’s important to stay vigilant.
"It could be the difference of having a good retirement or losing all of your retirement income,” Stranahan said.
Stranahan added there are a number of similar cases like this that the unit is currently looking into, and they’re hoping to have similar results.