State police are reminding residents to be on the lookout for scams involving cryptocurrencies, after a recent case in which a resident was swindled out of $10,000 in Bitcoin by a person who resides in India.
Troopers don’t anticipate an arrest will be made in the case, state police said. Authorities were able to transfer the money back to a governement-controlled account, where it will be held pending court proceedings.
State police said they were first made aware of the incident in June, when the Mansfield Resident Trooper’s Office received a complaint from the victim.
“The victim deposited $10,000 into a Bitcoin ATM after being led to believe that her bank account had been hacked,” state police said in a news release.
Bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency, is a digital form of encrypted currency without any centralized bank.
State police said investigators with the Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force tracked the money through several Bitcoin “wallets,” or accounts “that the scammer attempted to use to launder the stolen Bitcoin.”
Eventually, the money was located in what state police said is a “major cryptocurrency exhange” in the Cayman Islands.
State police said the exchange cooperated with investigators, and the funds were transeferred to a Bitcoin wallet controlled by the government. The money was held there “pending court proceedings for restitution to the victim,” state police said.
The agency used the case to remind people that scams involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are on the rise.
“While it is possible for law enforcement to investigate these cases and possibly make a recovery, time is of the essence,” state police said. “If you believe that you are the victim of a scam, make a report to your local police department or State Police troop as soon as possible and file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”
