East Lyme senior citizen defrauded of $60,000 in crypto scam
EAST LYME, Conn. — An East Lyme senior citizen was defrauded out of $60,000 in a cryptocurrency scam. However, the authorities were able to recover two-thirds of the money, and they warned residents to always be suspicious of calls of this nature.
In August 2022, a relative contacted the police to report that a pensioner in the town had been defrauded of a large sum of money. The resident had been contacted by someone claiming to be an attorney representing their bank who wanted to inform them of fraudulent activities involving their account.
The person on the phone told them not to tell anyone about the situation.
The “lawyer” advised the senior to go to their bank and withdraw a certain amount of money and not talk to anyone, including the police, about this request, the caller said, according to police. The “lawyer” also stated that if the bank were to ask about the reason for the withdrawals, the senior should tell them that it was money to buy a car or refurbish an apartment.
The caller told the victim to convert the cash into BitCoin, a hard-to-trace cryptocurrency. The caller contacted the victim on several occasions and asked for additional withdrawals. Close to 60,000 dollars was transferred according to the police.
Due to the nature of these accounts, police said the investigation has not yet identified the specific individuals criminally responsible or their country of origin.
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The East Lyme Police Department worked with the Connecticut State Police Statewide Organized Crime Investigative Task Force, the New London State’s Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice to track down the missing funds. The funds were located spread across several companies. Through this effort, police said they were able to recover $40,000 of the various cryptocurrencies, most of the funds being Bitcoin.
Police urged residents to exercise extreme caution when approached and asked to provide funding to individuals. If you question whether a call is valid, contact trusted friends or family members and the police to help you determine whether it is a valid situation.
Doug Stewart is a senior producer of digital content at FOX61 News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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