A Chesterton woman contacted police this week after falling victim to a bitcoin scam and receiving death threats for not cashing a fraudulent check.
The 32-year-old woman, of the 1500 block of Washington Avenue, contacted Chesterton police around 2 p.m. Monday because she received a fraudulent $2,500 check from an unknown person.
The woman, according to a report, told police she was caught up in a bitcoin transaction with the same person Sunday and was out $395. She received the check, from a fraudulent business in Anaheim, California, on Monday.
“She states that this unknown subject has been contacting her through ‘Whatsapp’ text messaging app and he has threatened to report her to the police if she does not cash this check and send him a portion of it,” according to police. “She states that she knows she is out the $395, but she just wants to make sure she is not in trouble with the police if this subject does call.”
Chesterton police have received around half a dozen complaints about bitcoin fraud over the past year and a half or two, Police Chief David Cincoski said.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t, and most of these people are financial predators. Mostly what they’re going to engage in is verbal coercion to get people to take these steps or they will be in fear for their life,” he said, adding residents also receive threatening calls from people claiming to be “IRS officers.”
Police, according to the report, assured the woman that the person was not going to contact police and advised her to block him on Whatsapp. She provided a phone number for the person to police which checked out to be a landline out of Dyer, Tennessee.
The woman told police she “just wanted to make sure she wasn’t in trouble” and that the only information the man had was her address and phone number.
She later called police back, very upset, and said “that this subject was now texting her death threats stating that he was coming over in 30 minutes and was going to kill her and the police.’
Police told her it was another ploy to convince her to cash the check and send him money and advised her that no one will show up. Police offered to provide extra patrols for the next couple of days and told her if she still felt unsafe, she should go stay with family or friends away from her residence.
Police do not believe the man was going to follow through on his threats, Cincoski said, adding anyone receiving such threats should block the man and contact police immediately.
“You shouldn’t be making any transactions with people you don’t know and bitcoin is going to be instantly suspicious,” he said.
Younger generations are more in tune with technology and new apps and messaging systems, he said, and “you can bet there’s going to be some kind of predator out there.”
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
