According to Decrypt, a Keystone, Colorado resident fell victim to a sophisticated crypto scam last week, losing over $6,000 in Bitcoin after fraudsters posed as law enforcement officials threatening arrest for missed jury duty, according to the Summit County Sheriff's Office. Documentation reviewed by Decrypt revealed that an additional $4,000 transfer was in progress, but deputies intervened before it could be completed. Despite this, the perpetrators had already obtained sensitive personal information during the call.
The Summit County Sheriff's Office stated in its incident report that a deputy would never call anyone to notify them of a warrant for their arrest and then offer to clear it in exchange for gift cards, wire transfers, or Bitcoin. Call logs from the report indicate that similar incidents continue to emerge across the state. In a separate incident in Denver, a woman lost almost $5,000 in Bitcoin after scammers impersonating Denver Police officers convinced her she had missed jury duty. Believing she had overlooked a jury notice, the victim followed the perpetrator's instructions to clear a fake warrant by sending payment through a Bitcoin ATM. Upon contacting Denver Police to confirm the transaction, she discovered she had been defrauded. The patrol report claims that it is unlikely the money will be recovered.
This case mirrors a September incident where Keystone bank staff prevented another resident from transferring $8,000 in crypto after receiving similar fraudulent calls. Scammers have increasingly adopted number spoofing techniques to make calls appear to originate from legitimate law enforcement agencies. Colorado's crypto fraud landscape has expanded significantly, with state investigators documenting over 1,300 cases totalling $81 million in losses during 2023. The state ranks 15th nationally for crypto-related crimes, according to law enforcement data.
FBI Denver also issued a warning earlier this year regarding token impersonation scams, including high-profile cases where some $3.2 million in crypto was allegedly misappropriated by a pastor and his wife, targeting victims through their Christian community and promoting a token called INDXcoin. The Sheriff's Office warned that scammers can be aggressive and persuasive, noting that crypto transactions are particularly attractive to fraudsters due to their irreversible nature and difficulty in tracing funds once transferred. While transactions in crypto are generally irreversible due to the concept of immutability for blockchains, recent work in reversible transactions through Ethereum was forwarded by researchers from Stanford University. Private-led initiatives to help victims of crypto scams have also been launched to counter these incidents.
