Colorado Resident Scammed Out Of Thousands In Bitcoin By Fake Jury Duty Call

A Keystone, Colorado resident fell victim to a sophisticated crypto scam last week, losing more than $6,000 worth of Bitcoin after fraudsters posed as law enforcement officers and threatened arrest for missed jury duty, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

According to documentation reviewed by Declutteran additional $4,000 transfer was in the works, although deputies were able to intervene before it went through.

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

“A deputy would never call someone to inform them of an arrest warrant and then offer to fulfill it in exchange for gift cards, wire transfers or Bitcoin,” the office said in its statement. incident report.

Phone conversation logs the report shows that similar incidents continue to occur across the state, with a separate incident in Denver detailing how a woman lost nearly $5,000 worth of Bitcoin after scammers posing as Denver police officers convinced her she could skip jury duty had missed.

The victim, thinking she had overlooked a message from the jury, followed the perpetrator’s instructions to revoke a fake warrant by sending the payment via a Bitcoin ATM.

When she contacted Denver police to confirm the transaction, she discovered she had been scammed. Although her bank has been notified of the fraud, the patrol report claims that “it is not likely that the money will be recovered.”

The case mirrors a September incident in which Keystone banking staff prevented another resident from transferring $8,000 in crypto after receiving similar fraudulent calls. Scammers are increasingly using number spoofing techniques to give the impression that calls are coming from legitimate law enforcement agencies.

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

FBI Denver also has one warning earlier this year in connection with token impersonation scams, including high-profile cases in which approximately $3.2 million in crypto was allegedly embezzled by a pastor and his wife, targeting victims through their Christian community and issuing 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 due to their irreversible nature and the difficulty of tracing funds once they have been transferred.