Bitcoin, PayPal scam nearly costs Wisconsin woman $16,000

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WBAY) – Stevens Point police, firefighters, and UPS saved a woman from losing $16,000 to scam.

Stevens Point police say scammers emailed a 79-year-old woman that she had bogus charges on her PayPal account. Through an elaborate scheme, they directed her to withdraw money from her bank and deposit it at a Bitcoin cryptocurrency ATM.

When that didn’t work, she tried sending the $16,000 in cash through UPS to an address in Texas.

“She made multiple attempts to deposit money in the machines and then she went to mail it through UPS. They told her they thought she was being victimized, and they took her package — they weren’t going to mail her package — and they let their investigators know, and then that is how we got involved,” Stevens Point Police Lt. Joe Johnson said.

The woman was able to deposit the money in the cryptocurrency ATM eventually.

Using a search warrant, police and firefighters were able to get into the machine and find the woman’s cash.

Our sister station WSAW reports two more people came to the same Bitcoin ATM to deposit large sums of money while detectives were investigating the first case. Police stopped them before they lost any money. The would-be victims were told similar stories as the first woman.

Police say the scammers had also directed the older woman to buy gift cards, send the cards to them and cut up all the receipts.

Stevens Point police say these scams seem to involve messages received through email or text saying there is a problem with a financial account, their computer has been hacked, or that their account shows evidence of child pornography or other criminal activities. Once the victim makes contact with the scammers on the phone, they are told there are fraudulent charges on their accounts.

Scammers seemed to know the correct balance of the victims’ bank accounts, making the scam more believable to the victims. They might have accessed that information through spyware.

As we told you in a Consumer First Alert about investment scams, consumer experts say many of these scams go unreported because people are embarrassed. It’s important to talk to your friends, parents, and grandparents about these scams and how they work. Remind them it’s not their fault and if they’re a victim to report it to the police.

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