Colorado Resident Scammed Thousands Out of Bitcoin Through Fake Jury Appeal

A Keystone, Colorado resident fell victim to a sophisticated crypto scam last week, losing more than $6,000 in Bitcoin after scammers posed as law enforcement officials threatening to be arrested for failure to perform jury duty, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the documentation reviewed by Decryptan additional transfer of $4,000 was in the works, although MPs were able to intervene before it was passed.

Despite this, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office revealed that the perpetrators had already obtained sensitive personal information during the call.

“A deputy will never call anyone to inform them of a warrant for their arrest and then offer to clear it in exchange for gift cards, wire transfers or Bitcoin,” the office said in its statement . incident report.

Call newspapers The report says similar incidents continue to pop up across the state, with a separate incident in Denver describing how a woman lost nearly $5,000 in Bitcoin after scammers posing as Denver police officers convinced that she had failed in her duties as a jury.

The victim, believing she must have ignored a jury notice, followed the attacker’s instructions to clear a fake money order by sending the payment through a Bitcoin ATM.

Upon contacting Denver police to confirm the transaction, she discovered she had been defrauded. Although his bank was informed of the fraud, the patrol’s report states that “it is unlikely that the money will be recovered.”

The case mirrors a September incident in which Keystone Bank staff blocked another resident from transferring $8,000 in crypto after receiving similar scam calls. Fraudsters have increasingly adopted number spoofing techniques to make calls appear to be coming from legitimate law enforcement agencies.

from Colorado crypto fraud landscape has grown significantly, with state investigators documenting more than 1,300 cases totaling $81 million in losses in 2023. The state ranks 15th nationally for crypto-related crimes, according to to law enforcement data.

FBI Denver also released a warning earlier this year regarding identity theft scams, including high-profile cases in which some $3.2 million in crypto was allegedly embezzled by a pastor and his wife, targeting victims through their Christian community , by shilling a token called INDXcoin.

“These scammers can be aggressive and persuasive,” the sheriff’s office warned, noting that crypto transactions are particularly attractive to fraudsters because of their irreversible nature and the difficulty in tracing funds once transferred.