California Man Loses $27,000 in Bitcoin After Falling Prey to Crypto Scammers

In Daly City, California, authorities are investigating a crypto scam incident where a man lost $27,000 worth of bitcoin. A 48-year-old man claimed the scammers tricked him into giving them the keys to his wallet.

Scammer Impersonated a Crypto Wallet Hardware Firm Ledger Representative

Per KTVU FOX 2, the unnamed victim received a text message from someone impersonating a representative of T-Mobile, a telecommunications provider in the United States. In the SMS, the scammer told him that there were suspicious activities in his T-Mobile account.

In fact, the fake mobile provider representative claimed there were attempts to change his account’s password. The scammer asked him to call a phone number, claiming it was an official phone line of T-Mobile.

However, the impersonator just used such an instance to elaborate on the scam. In fact, he received a new passcode to an old email address he used for a bitcoin wallet he held. Police believe that scammers also managed to hack the email account of the victim.

Afterward, the 48-year-old man received a call from an unidentified number. The caller claimed to be a Ledger representative, a crypto wallet hardware company. The fake Ledger employee told the victim that his wallet had been hacked.

As the victim was desperate to recover his alleged hacked wallet, the scammer told him that he’d take care of restoring his wallet.

However, the man fell into the trap: the impersonator asked him for the passcode and anonymous account identification numbers. Immediately afterward, the victim sent the information requested.

When the California-based man checked his alleged hacked wallet, all of his bitcoin funds ($27,000 at the time of theft) were no longer there.

Recent Bitcoin-Related Phone Scam Incidents

In Michigan, Farmington Hills Police Department warned residents on the return of bitcoin phone scams amid a string of frauds. Scammers ask victims to deposit into a bitcoin ATM for paying “past due” bills from local companies.

However, Canada is another hotspot for bitcoin-related phone scams, whose cases were on the rise during 2020. On January 22, 2021, the Ontario Provincial Police issued a warning to Brantford area residents about bitcoin scams targeting the region.

The modus operandi is the same as the one seen in Michigan’s story: fraudsters asking people to deposit money into a bitcoin ATM.