No one — repeat, no one — needs to be so fearful that they’re stuffing tens of thousands of dollars in a box and standing at home or in a parking lot waiting for a stranger to pick up the cash in order to avoid an arrest or some other big trouble.
No one — repeat, no one — needs to listen to anyone who demands that they feed Benjamins into bitcoin ATM at a nearby gas station or liquor store, either.
But sadly, we seem to be seeing a surge in such crimes. The story line for the scam hasn’t changed much. What’s shocking is how brazen and bold the crime rings are getting. Some even tell victims the type and color of car to expect to pick up the cash. It’s all designed to make things seem more official.
The couriers dress up for the role and drive away with a great deal of cash, real cash, before you realize you’ve been scammed. Victims can lose their entire savings, retirement nest eggs or deplete all their investment accounts.
Scam threats remain but more demands for cash, bitcoin
“The scams aren’t really changing,” Northville Township Deputy Chief Matthew MacKenzie told me in a phone interview. But many criminals are changing the ways they get payments and now want money by bitcoin or cash itself.
Maybe, the scam starts when someone claims your computer has been involved in some sort of cybercrime. Maybe, you’re told you are under investigation for an alleged crime or there’s a warrant out there for your arrest.
Maybe, it’s supposedly the Internal Revenue Service. Or the Federal Trade Commission. Crooks might tell you that you need to withdraw your money from the bank and hand it over to the federal agents or the FBI to protect your savings.
The bad actors can pretend to be tech support workers, someone who claims to be from a bank or brokerage firm, or someone posing as employee at the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and other government agencies.
In some scams, the FBI states, the crooks continue to emphasize the victim’s money in an account is “unsafe” and they must move that money in compromised account to a new “alias” account for protection.
One Michigan woman lost $300,000
This summer, a Northville Township woman in her 70s lost $300,000 to one of these types of scams. Police said the crooks got cash, bitcoin and, ultimately, came to the victim’s home where gold bars were given to the suspects who drove off.
The scam began when the woman was told her IP address for her computer was used to commit crimes, MacKenzie said. The crooks told her she could take care of the problem by buying bitcoin. Then, more money was requested.
Increasingly, scammers are incorporating cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks into their schemes as a way to steal money. It could be a tech support scam, a government impersonation scam or a romance scam.
Typically, MacKenzie said, the suspects will keep the person on the phone, telling them not to hang up or talk with anyone about this problem. The consumer usually goes to a bank — or a few bank branches — to withdraw money first and then deposit that cash into the bitcoin ATM. Or they might be told a courier will pick up the cash.
MacKenzie said the consumer could end up making multiple withdrawals at different banks in the area to avoid suspicion of bank tellers.
“If I go to my bank and I try to pull out $50,000,” he said, “they’re going to start asking me some questions.”
Scammers know the nearest bitcoin ATM
Once they have the cash, the person often is then told where to drive to find a bitcoin ATM in their area, perhaps at a supermarket, gas station, or liquor store.
The cash is deposited via a cryptocurrency ATM or kiosk. Once deposited, the cash is converted into cryptocurrency. Then, the scammer is able to transfer that bitcoin or other digital currency to other accounts. More 2,000 complaints were filed in 2023 by individuals over the age of 60 regarding the use of cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center report.
The bitcoin wallet where your money ultimately ends up can be located anywhere in the world, making it tough for law enforcement to track down the criminals.
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And then, there’s the plain old cash grab.
The FBI has outlined what it calls a new “phantom hacker” scam beginning in 2023 where couriers are used to retrieve cash and precious metals, like gold, from people as part of call center-related scams, such as those involving tech support scams and government impersonation scams.
In a column in June, I detailed how some scammers are picking up cash directly from you. Back in February, a New York-based writer and mother of a 2-year-old stunned readers with the admission that she put $50,000 in cash in a shoebox and handed it over to a stranger who pulled up outside of her apartment driving a white Mercedes SUV.
The FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other federal agencies took action this year against some 3,000 so-called “money mules” — networks of individuals who pick up the money from fraud victims to later hand over to international fraud rings.
In one case, authorities say, crime rings recruited college students to act as couriers to collect payments from victims around the country and then fraudulently open bank accounts where the money collected from victims of the scam would be deposited.
Consumers also are being warned to be on “the lookout for signs someone is trying to recruit them to receive and transmit fraud proceeds,” according to the Justice Department.
“Do not open a bank or cryptocurrency account at someone else’s direction. Fraudsters will lie to persuade you to help them.”
Another Michigan woman lost $100,000
Fraudsters, it seems, never stop telling tall tales, including stories about how someone overpaid you.
In July, another Northville Township woman in her 50s lost $50,000 in cash and another $50,000 in bitcoin in a scam that began with email phishing and a fake overpayment into a PayPal account.
When she called the number on the email, according to police, she was connected with scammers. She was led to believe that somehow thousands of dollars were overpaid into a PayPal account.
In this type of scam, the suspects often will ask someone to download an app onto their computer, MacKenzie said, which gives the suspects remote access to the computer to make it look like there’s an extra $50,000 sitting in the consumer’s PayPal account. And that’s how criminals convince the person to give the money back via bitcoin or cash.
The reality is that no extra money is in your account.
The woman who lost a total of $100,000 started out putting thousands of dollars into a bitcoin ATM in Northville Township. She was later told that $50,000 at the bitcoin ATM didn’t fix the problem and then told she now needed to give cash.
Once again, another resident was waiting at home to hand over money — $50,000 in cash — to strangers.
License plate readers used to track down a car
Her story doesn’t end there.
“Fortunately, she recognized the car had a California license plate and knew what type of vehicle it was,” MacKenzie said.
“When she realized what she had done, she immediately called us. We were able to use license plate readers to locate a vehicle that matched it.”
Two suspects were tracked down just outside of Cleveland and later arrested — Dhaval Divakar Brahmbhatt, 25, and Smit Rajeshbhai Shah, 20. Each are charged with three felony counts involving false pretenses with intent to defraud, fraudulent withdrawals or transfers of money, and fraudulent access to a computer to commit a crime.
Both defendants stood mute on July 15 as a plea of not guilty was entered for them by the court.
MacKenzie said the $50,000 in cash was recovered but it is being held as evidence.
Sterling Heights attorney James Thomas, who is representing Brahmbhatt, declined to discuss the case with the Free Press. Attorney Scott Ruark, who is listed as representing Shah, did not respond to emails or calls by the Free Press.
Northville Township police say it helped in this situation that the woman contacted police quickly. Unfortunately, though, she only recognized the scam almost immediately after handing over the money.
Too often, reality hits just seconds after the cash is gone. Perhaps, scammers terrorize people so much that it holds them back from seeing a scam earlier in the game.
In May, the Ionia County Sheriff Office reported that a 72-year-old woman withdrew $40,000 in cash from her bank, put the money in a box and handed it over to scammers posing as federal agents who came to her home. But before scammers could get more money from her — and they were trying a week later — she contacted law enforcement, undercover units were deployed and two suspects from Illinois in their 20s were arrested in that case.
“Early investigation has discovered that the persons on the phone with the victim in this case were based overseas, using various anonymity apps to hide their identities,” according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. The calls were spoofed to seem like the phone calls were really coming from the Federal Trade Commission.
What are some signs you’re about to be scammed?
If someone claims you are under investigation or have outstanding warrants, contact the police directly first before handing over money. The same’s true if someone claims you owe the Internal Revenue Service taxes. It’s a scam if someone demands cash or bitcoin or gift cards to resolve such issues.
Another huge red flag: Do not hand over money if you’re instructed to stay on the phone and told by the caller not to reach out to anyone else or to convince the teller that you’re taking out cash for a home repair or something else.
Kati Daffan, assistant director for the Federal Trade Commission’s marketing practices division, said you should take time to pause any time you feel rushed or under pressure to send money or make a payment. Scammers want to keep you on edge.
“Time pressure is a clue with many different types of scams,” she said. “One of the reasons that scammers use that tactic is because they don’t want you to have enough time to stop and talk with anybody else about what’s going on.”
But that’s exactly what you need to do to avoid losing money or handing over key ID information.
More: Milford woman pleads guilty to role in IRS impersonator scam: She was the money mule
While a phone number can look real, it’s important to remember that scammers spoof real phone numbers. Just hang up. And call the IRS or the city police department or whoever supposedly is making that call. You want to verify anything is real. If you want to be polite, say “Hey, I’ll call you back in 10 minutes. What’s your name?”
Scammers chase the money
There’s a reason we’ve all heard of the grandma scam. Often, adults in their 50s, 60s, 70s and older have built up retirement savings. Some scammers also target upscale communities, much like Northville Township, as another way to chase the cash.
The scammer often knows a great deal about you before making the call — whether you live in a high-end community, your age, and, maybe, even if you’ve been a victim of a scam in the past.
Scams targeting people aged 60 and older generated more than $3.4 billion in losses in 2023, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center Elder Fraud Report. That’s up about 11% from 2022. The average victim of elder fraud lost $33,915 due to these crimes in 2023.
Some 5,920 individuals, according to FBI data, reported losing more than $100,000.
If you or someone you know is age 60 or older and has experienced financial fraud, professionals are standing by at the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 833-372-8311.
It’s hard for most people to even imagine what $40,000 or $50,000 in cash stuffed in a box looks like. How heavy would that box even be to carry? But the criminals behind these schemes don’t want you to think about all those odd details or how truly strange it is to give lots of cash to someone you’ve never met but appears to look official.
The scammers just want your money, all of it, and they want it real fast.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X (Twitter) @tompor.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan woman loses $100,000 in scam involving bitcoin ATM and cash