Police in White Settlement are offering their thanks to a customer at a convenience store who noticed an elderly woman who was falling victim to scammers. The crooks convinced the elderly woman they were calling from her bank - and that she would be arrested if she did not send them $40,000 in Bitcoin.
A customer at the convenience store on Cherry Lane called 9-1-1 when she saw the woman feeding thousands of dollars in cash into the cryptocurrency ATM.
"The people on the phone have her Facetiming to make sure she's putting the money in the machine. I don't think she's aware of what she's doing. It just seems so suspect," the caller told the 911 operator.
A White Settlement police officer quickly arrived on the scene to investigate. Video from his body-worn camera shows him attempting to comfort the woman - and confronting the scammers over the video call.
"Please, I have the bank on the phone...I'm in danger," the woman told him.
"No, you're not," the officer said. "Let me talk to them. Stop putting money in there."
The scammers tried to get the officer off of the call.
"It's not your problem," they told him - which brought a severe response.
"It is my problem, because what you're doing is committing a crime. If you were in my presence right now, you would be in handcuffs going to jail," the officer said.
The officer did convince the victim that she was not in any danger of being arrested - and to stop feeding money into the Bitcoin ATM. Unfortunately, they say she lost over $23,000 before the transaction was disrupted.
"We are extremely grateful for the citizen who recognized these danger signs and contacted us," said White Settlement Chief of Police Christopher Cook. "Our supervisor who arrived on scene took control of the situation and confronted the suspect on the phone and prevented the woman from depositing further money. It is sickening that these suspects prey on our most vulnerable community members with these types of frauds."
Police say the scammers frequently impersonate, or "spoof", the caller i-d of a well-known financial institution to trick their victims. In this case, the victim saw the name "Chase Bank" on the caller I-D. Police stress that banks will never request the withdrawal of funds over the phone.
The White Settlement Police Department is working with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office and Bitcoin's law enforcement liaison to attempt to recover the woman's money.
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