From North Platte Police Department
(NORTH PLATTE, Neb.) — Over the past few months, the North Platte Police Department has received numerous complaints in which people have been asked to deposit large amounts of money into various Crypto-currency ATMs around town. Not only have various residents become the target of these crimes, but people from outside of North Platte in the surrounding communities and beyond have been targeted as well.
Cryptocurrencies are a new and largely unregulated market in which people can purchase “Bitcoin” and other various “Coins” online or through these ATMs.
Tracking these purchases and transactions is difficult for Law Enforcement, because whoever has access to a particular account or “Crypto-Wallet” can remove these funds remotely from anywhere in the world, meaning that the perpetrator may not even be in the United States. One of the various appeals that Cryptocurrencies have had to consumers is that it helps protect the privacy of the people using the currencies.
While privacy is a good thing for citizens, it creates an easy system for people to take people’s money remotely and indiscreetly, which criminals have been taking advantage of. We ask that before anyone uses these ATMs, to educate themselves and loved ones on how cryptocurrencies work as anyone advising you to make purchases or send them into a “Wallet” may be leading you into a scam.
These scammers don’t always appear to be strangers making a phone call to you, sometimes you might receive a message from someone appearing to be your mother on Facebook Messenger, telling you how they have recently made a fortune using cryptocurrencies. Please continue to not believe just anything you read on the internet.
Scammers for years have been using numerous tactics to gain people’s trust and take their information or their money. Many of these tactics include things such as informing them they have won money from the publisher’s clearing house. Some other tactics include stating the victim has gotten a refund, missed a court date, or a purchase has been made on an account they own.
In some popular scams, the scammers will lure a victim onto a website in which their computer can be controlled. The scammers then usually pull up the victim’s bank account information and make it appear that they have lost or gained money and now “owe” them a large amount of money. Many of these scams are outlined with various threats to not tell anyone or contact law enforcement to isolate their victim.
In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission reports that around $8.8 Billion had been lost to scammers and it is currently on the rise from the $3.8 Billion that had been lost in 2021.
The tactics of these sorts of theft cases make them exceptionally time-consuming and resource-intensive for law enforcement to solve. Many of the cases are unable to be solved. With criminal tactics and the ability to use people’s information, it is more imperative now, than ever to make sure that we are taking the time to educate ourselves and loved ones on safe internet browsing and use of the phone.
Scammers often target elderly people but have been known to target various people indiscriminately. Please take the time to talk with the people around you and check in with them. Scams can take place over several days or weeks in which someone attempts to gain the victim’s trust. Family and Law Enforcement intervention has proved to be an effective way of disrupting these sorts of scams. If we can help spread awareness of Online and Telephone Scams, it will help to disrupt the Scam industry and continue to protect our friends and family within our communities.
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