The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department is praising a 70-year-old man for realizing he was a victim of a scam before it was too late. Chief Deputy Ben Houchin says the man’s laptop malfunctioned and he was told to call the number on the screen.
“And the party on the other end of the line acted like an IT service advisor and asked him to withdraw $15,000 from his bank account and deposit the funds into a bitcoin machine at a liquor store,” Houchin says.
Houchin says after arriving at the at the business the man became suspicious of the request and decided not to deposit the money. “We are happy he changed his mind.” There have been a number of online bitcoin scams in Lincoln and Lancaster County in recent weeks where victims have lost thousands of dollars.
“Right now they are hitting in our area and after a while they go away and come back again,” Houchin says.