In an unexpected twist, a woman residing in Clive, Polk County, Iowa, became a victim of a scam centered around a Bitcoin ATM, as per a press release issued by the local police which was subsequently shared on the department’s official Facebook page.Â
According to the unfortunate victim, the imposter falsely informed her about an arrest warrant and successfully persuaded her to send $6,600 through a Bitcoin ATM as a means to resolve the alleged issue. This fraudulent scheme unfolded when she received a phone call from an individual posing as a deputy from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
In a united effort, the Clive Police Department and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office are working together to apprehend the scammer responsible for this incident. They are keen to highlight that legitimate law enforcement personnel would never reach out to individuals and request payment through Bitcoin ATMs.
Furthermore, the Clive Police Department emphasized the difficulty in tracing funds transferred through Bitcoin ATMs, making the recovery of the money an incredibly challenging task.
According to the recently published 2023 report on cryptocurrency-related crimes by Chainalysis, a mere 1% of payments made by victims to scams originate from crypto ATMs.
Although this percentage may seem relatively low, the report emphasizes that ATMs are not commonly employed to send funds to various other types of illicit addresses.
Interestingly, just 2.2% of the funds sent from ATMs in the previous year were directed towards illicit addresses, amounting to a staggering $67.5 million within the overall illicit transaction volume of $20.6 billion.
Nevertheless, the majority of this transaction volume is attributed to scams. Specifically, during that particular year, scammers received a substantial amount of $35.3 million via Bitcoin ATMs. This staggering figure indicates that scams constitute more than 50% of the overall illicit transactions conducted through Bitcoin ATMs.
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