STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – The Stevens Point Police Department is warning the public of a recent scam involving PayPal and cryptocurrency ATMs.
Last week, detectives were made aware of a situation where it appeared someone was being scammed out of a large sum of money. The victim told detectives they received an email from PayPal indicating they had fraudulent activity on their account. The victim called a phone number listed in the email and was told there were $899 in fraudulent charges on their account. The victim was instructed to request reimbursement through PayPal. However, the victim was made to believe they had requested too much money and now they needed to pay it back.
The victim was told to withdraw money from their personal account and send it using a Bitcoin ATM. That transaction was unsuccessful so the victim was then instructed to ship the money to PayPal and was given an address in Texas. The victim tried to send $16,000 in cash via UPS. An employee at UPS told the victim they were being scammed and called police.
The victim took their money from the UPS location and was again told by the scammer to send the money through a Bitcoin ATM located at a store in Stevens Point. This transaction was successful. The scammer also told the victim to buy gift cards, send them to the scammer and cut up all the receipts.
While detectives were investigating this case, two other people arrived at the same Bitcoin ATM to deposit large sums of money. These people were told similar stories as the first victim. The police warned these people of the scam before they lost any money.
Police obtained a warrant for the Bitcoin machine and with the help of the Stevens Point Fire Department, they were able to open the machine and retrieve the $16,000.
The police department says these scams seem to mainly involve messages received through email or text. The victims are told their computer has been hacked and are directed to call to get things straightened out. Once the victim makes contact with the scammers on the phone, they are told there are fraudulent charges on their accounts. In some cases, they are also told their accounts show evidence of child pornography or other criminal activities as a way to get them to fall for the scam.
The scammers also seem to know the correct balance of the victims’ bank accounts. It appears this information is available to them through spyware. This information makes the scam more believable for the victims. The victims are then directed to withdraw all of their available money from their account and deposit it into a cryptocurrency machine so it is secure. Sometimes the victims are directed to purchase gift cards to pay the scammer, send cash, or meet someone in person to pick up the cash.
The suspects in these cases appear to be calling from a call center. The suspects are said to speak with an accent that would suggest they are located in India. Once they are on the phone with a victim, the scammers typically do not want the victim to hang up.
If you’ve been a victim of such a scam, please notify your local law enforcement agency.
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