Virginia woman falls victim to bitcoin scam, loses more than $30,000

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RICHMOND, Virginia (WTVR) — A Richmond, Virginia, woman lost more than $30,000 after police say she fell victim to a scam.

CBS 6 Crime Insider Jon Burkett spoke to Frank Oley, her financial adviser and Greg Wade, a Richmond detective about how this happened.

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The woman got an email which appeared to be from PayPal.

“It was about the purchase of some type of malware and if you didn’t want it to call a certain number,” Wade said.

She then called the number and got swindled.

“After the transaction was done, he said, ‘You added too many zeroes,’ and, ‘Oh, my God, I’m going to lose my job, it’s Christmas time and I have kids,’ laid it on thick to her. This client being such a nice, honest and decent person felt sorry for this guy,” Wade explained.

The woman felt so bad she withdrew a total of $34,300 from two banks in an effort to pay for what she thought was her mistake.

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The scammer instructed her to load the cash into a bitcoin machine along Azalea Avenue. It took her two hours and 873 separate transactions to do.

Detective Wade got a search warrant and told the store to shut the machine down. A representative came to open it, and the woman’s money was still there.

Her money is being held as evidence for now, but she will get it all back.

“The good news is with George, the Richmond City Police Department, we got the money back,” Oley said.

Wade says the scammer was traced to a location outside the United States.