SPOKANE, Wash. – Detective Tim Schwering of the Spokane Police Department has seen far too many people fall victim to cryptocurrency scams.
“We’ve had three instances, I believe, of people that have committed suicide because of the financial losses they incurred,” said Det. Schwering. “And it’s happening almost everyday now.”
For an 84-year-old Spokane woman, who we’ll call Helen because she wants to remain anonymous, it all started with a phone call from someone claiming to be from Amazon.
“We have you down as $11,000 that you’re relaundering,” Helen recalled the scammer telling her on that first phone call. “You’re laundering money and you’re being sued for fraud, etc. And that the IRS is after you.”
Helen was immediately suspicious, but the calls continued.
“So they kept after me, after me, after me. One call after another. Sometimes as many as four calls a day,” she said.
How much the scammers knew about her was especially unnerving.
“They knew how much I had in my checking account and how much I had in my savings account. And they knew how much I had in investments,” said Helen. “How did they get that?”
The threats continued. The scammers told Helen the only way to clear her name, and avoid being arrested, was to go to a Bitcoin ATM and transfer them money.
“I felt like I was in a rollercoaster ride and that I was being hypnotized and dragged through the mud. They threatened me with everything you can possibly imagine,” said Helen.
First, she transferred $39,000. Then, another $14,000. But the scammers didn’t stop there. Next, they convinced Helen to wire transfer more $200,000s to a coin dealer in Spokane to purchase gold coins.
“They had her bring it back to her apartment here and they knew that there was cameras in the building and so they had her walk the coins out to their vehicle and drove away,” explained Det. Schwering.
Helen lost more than $300,000 in total.
“Could be as high as $316,000. Everything is gone,” she said.
And the worst part of it is Det. Schwering says there’s almost no chance of getting her money back.
“When money goes overseas to these types of, China, Russia, North Korea, that’s money’s not coming back. And there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.
But why weren’t any red flags raised by Helen’s bank, preventing her from sending all that money?
“I’ve talked to victims that their bank would not let them wire money. They said, ‘This is a scam and we’re not going to let you do this,'” said Det. Schwering. “Other banks take the position that if their customers want to wire money to anywhere, they will let them do that. And they view that as not their problem.”
“Protect me,” pleaded Helen. “Because if my bank wasn’t helping me in a manner, then who else could I trust other than myself?”
And with her life savings now gone, 4 News Now asked where this whole ordeal has left her.
“Destitute. Devastated,” she said. “I’ve had to reverse my whole life. Everything that I knew is gone.”
Helen said she’ll continue to fight to try to get her money back. But in the meantime, she’s left wondering how to pay for things like rent, gas and groceries with almost no money left to her name.
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