Auburn Woman Loses Thousands in Suspected Bitcoin Scam

An Auburn woman claims she’s out more than $3,000 after getting duped in a Bitcoin scam.

According to information from State Police in Schuylkill Haven, the 25-year-old says she recently received checks from an unnamed person. Her instructions were to deposit the money into her bank account and use the money to buy Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

The woman did as instructed. She used her BB&T mobile app to deposit the checks. With that money – $3,180 in total – she purchased 3 Coinme vouchers for Bitcoin and then forwarded the vouchers to the person sending her the checks.

It turns out, the checks were fraudulent.

Police say their investigation is ongoing.

Cryptocurrency Scams on the Rise

According to recent information from the Federal Trade Commission, cryptocurrency scams are on the rise.

Here’s a chart from the FTC showing the sudden jump in reported crypto scams. The FTC says that about 7,000 people in the US have reported losing about $80 million on cryptocurrency scams just since October 2020. People between the ages of 20-49 are 5 times as likely to be targeted in a cryptocurrency scam.

(Image: FTC)

We couldn’t find any reported examples similar to the one alleged by the Schuylkill County woman but the police information is limited.

Right now, there are several trendy types of crypto scams, like a Ponzi scheme where people are conned into believing they’re part of a larger investment group.

There are also fake celebrity scams where people are tricked into believing they’re interacting with people like Elon Musk. The FTC says more than $2 million in cryptocurrency has been sent to people pretending to be the SpaceX founder.

Other popular scam types involving cryptocurrency are similar to other financial scams, like a romance scam or giving money to people posing as bill collectors who only want to be paid in crypto.

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