By NATE KING Salina Post
A Salina woman was scammed out of $7,400 in a Bitcoin phone scam on Thursday.
The victim, a 75-year-old Salina woman living in the 2000 block of Raymond Avenue, received a phone call from an individual claiming to be "James Williams" from the Saline County Sheriff's "Department." The caller informed her that she had failed to appear for jury duty and was in contempt of court on both state and federal levels.
"The caller told her that she had to make a full payment using Bitcoin to have the charges dropped," said SPD Lt. David Villanueva. "She went to her bank and got $7,400 in cash."
Villanueva said the victim then went to a Bitcoin machine where the caller gave her codes to put in the machine. The scammer provided her with specific codes to input into the machine, directing the payment to their account instead of to a legitimate one. The victim followed the caller's instructions, unaware she was being deceived.
The woman went to the Salina Police Department, where she realized the phone caller was scamming her.
"We reminded her, like we remind the public, that the sheriff's 'department' does not take payment over Bitcoin over the phone or anything," Villanueva said. "Nor would they ever call somebody and say you missed your jury duty and need to pay $7,400."
Villanueva said no, James Williams works at the Saline County Sheriff's Office.
"It is the Sheriff's Office, not the Sheriff's Department," Villanueva said. "If somebody calls you and says, 'Hey, you owe this or whatever.' Call the Sheriff's Office or Police Department themselves and say, 'Hey, is this true?' and you'll probably find out it's not."
The investigation is ongoing, but SPD acknowledges that recovering the funds will be difficult.