Crypto

Scam so convincing victim ignores police, puts thousands into Cryptocurrency ATM

Published

2 months ago

December 6, 2025

Scam so convincing victim ignores police, puts thousands into Cryptocurrency ATM

WESTLAKE, Ohio (WJW) — Police in Westlake said a computer scam artist was so convincing in the story he pitched to an elderly victim that she put thousands of dollars into a Cryptocurrency ATM, even after store employees and officers pleaded with her to stop.

On Nov. 26, police were alerted by an employee at a Marathon convenience store on Center Ridge Road that a 71-year-old woman was feeding a large amount of cash into a Bitcoin ATM, while speaking with someone on her cell phone. The employee warned the woman that it appeared she was the target of a scam, but she refused to listen and kept pumping money into the machine.

On body camera video obtained by Fox 8 News, an officer approached the woman and told her, “We deal with this all the time, stop what you’re doing, I’m telling you, stop. If somebody tells you to do this, you are being scammed.” The woman responded, “They’re on the phone; they can hear everything.” The officer then told her, “Right, and they’re scamming you.”

However, the 71-year-old ignored repeated warnings from officers, after being persuaded by a scammer posing as a bank fraud investigator, that she needed to put $18,000 into the crypto machine, or risk having her life savings stolen from her account.

The officer told her, “Stop what you’re doing, you’re going to lose this money. They’re lying to you; that’s not how it works, I promise you. They’re lying, they don’t tell you to go to a gas station and go buy Bitcoin, I’m telling you, you should stop what you’re doing.”

Officers eventually convinced the woman to stop putting cash into the ATM, but not before she lost $5,500.

The victim later told investigators the elaborate scam began earlier that day, when she received a pop-up message on her computer, indicating it was infected with a virus. A number was provided to get help, which put her in the clutches of the scam artist.

WPD Captain Jerry Vogel told Fox 8, “She sees the pop-up, so she knows that there is an issue. Unfortunately, now the scammers use that and say, ‘Hey, it looks like maybe someone has been planting pornography or some other illicit material on your computer, you’re going to be in some trouble if you don’t get this money out of your bank and put it into a crypto machine.”

The scammer told the victim that bank employees would ask her questions about why she was taking out so much money from her account. He even gave her a story to tell, which was that she needed the cash to buy a car.

The woman told detectives, “He said, ‘Do this, do that, go here, go there.’” The final piece of the scam came when the con artist sent a QR code to the victim’s phone, which she used to direct the funds loaded into the ATM to his crypto account.

“They weave these stories so well that the victims really believe they need to do this immediately,” said Captain Vogel.

While there is no guarantee the victim will be able to recover the money she put into the ATM, detectives were able to use new technology to immediately freeze the crypto wallet being used by the scammer. It’s part of an ongoing battle between law enforcement and cyber criminals.

According to Captain Vogel, “We take one step forward, they take another step forward, so it’s a cat and mouse game.”

Related Topics:Bitcoin cryptocurrency scam Westlake News

Click to comment

Crypto

Better Cryptocurrency to Buy Now and Hold for 10 Years: XRP vs. Bitcoin

Published

28 minutes ago

February 14, 2026

Press Room

Better Cryptocurrency to Buy Now and Hold for 10 Years: XRP vs. Bitcoin

Key Points

Bitcoin’s most important features probably won’t change much between now and 2036.
XRP’s feature set will need to change and expand considerably during the same period if it’s going to flourish.
Both coins could be good investments.
10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) aren’t trying to win in the same game. One is competing to be the store of value asset that people trust when governments are printing money. The other is vying to be useful plumbing inside institutional financial workflows.

During the next 10 years, those two assets are thus likely to perform very differently. Let’s examine the case for buying and holding each of them, and figure out which one is better.

Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

Image source: Getty Images.

Bitcoin doesn’t need to change much to succeed

Bitcoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that has survived for more than 10 years. Its odds of surviving the next 10 years are quite high, because the features that made it a good investment in the past are still operating on behalf of holders.

Specifically, Bitcoin’s supply is as constrained as ever. New coin issuance is cut in half on a regular schedule, and the supply is capped at 21 million coins (about 20 million already are in circulation). That isn’t going to change, which means as long as there is at least some demand, its price is biased to the upside over the long term. Its legacy as a store of value, while still in its infancy, is more likely to consolidate than peter out as time passes.

Furthermore, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a majority share of total crypto market value, which means it’s the default yardstick for the whole sector. Owning Bitcoin as part of a balanced crypto portfolio is thus a bet that its prominence and dominance will stay intact even in the event of some future ugly years, just as it did in the past.

Of course, that didn’t stop holders from experiencing downturns of 80% or more, but Bitcoin’s price can fluctuate tremendously without compromising the coin’s investment thesis.

XRP’s moat isn’t as large

For XRP to win during the next 10 years as it did during the past 10 years, there will need to be wider adoption of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) across three axes: as a payments and settlement network, as a tokenized asset management platform, and as a set of financial tools for institutional investors and traders. It’s making credible inroads in those arenas, and it will likely succeed in at least one of them.

But compared to Bitcoin, the trouble with XRP is that it simply has a lot of competition in all three of those verticals today, and there will probably be even more competition in the near future and beyond. The coin could thus bid to become the future of cryptocurrency, only to lose later on when other players encroach on its turf.

That makes it hard to believe that XRP can see its price rise smoothly without continuously winning at least some of its many competitive fights over time — and continuous execution is a very high bar to clear during a 10-year time span.

So, Bitcoin is the better cryptocurrency to invest in if you’re willing to hold it for a long time. XRP isn’t a bad pick. It’s just that it will have to face and overcome many difficult obstacles, while Bitcoin simply doesn’t need to.

Should you buy stock in Bitcoin right now?

Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $409,108!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,145,980!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 886% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 193% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of February 14, 2026.

Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Crypto

Better Cryptocurrency to Buy Now and Hold for 10 Years: XRP vs. Bitcoin | The Motley Fool

Published

13 hours ago

February 14, 2026

Press Room

Better Cryptocurrency to Buy Now and Hold for 10 Years: XRP vs. Bitcoin | The Motley Fool

Both these assets have earned their place as leaders, but the next 10 years could be tough for one of them.

Bitcoin (BTC +3.22%) and XRP (XRP +6.34%) aren’t trying to win in the same game. One is competing to be the store of value asset that people trust when governments are printing money. The other is vying to be useful plumbing inside institutional financial workflows.

During the next 10 years, those two assets are thus likely to perform very differently. Let’s examine the case for buying and holding each of them, and figure out which one is better.

Image source: Getty Images.

Bitcoin doesn’t need to change much to succeed

Today’s Change

(3.22%) $2168.69

Current Price

$69455.00

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$1.4T

Day’s Range

$67217.00 – $70434.00

52wk Range

$60255.56 – $126079.89

Volume

46B

Of course, that didn’t stop holders from experiencing downturns of 80% or more, but Bitcoin’s price can fluctuate tremendously without compromising the coin’s investment thesis.

XRP’s moat isn’t as large

Today’s Change

(6.34%) $0.09

Current Price

$1.46

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$89B

Day’s Range

$1.37 – $1.47

52wk Range

$1.14 – $3.65

Volume

2.6B

Crypto

Financial expert weighs economy outlook, cautious investors and cryptocurrency’s latest

Published

1 day ago

February 13, 2026

Press Room

Financial expert weighs economy outlook, cautious investors and cryptocurrency’s latest

WASHINGTON (7News) — Recent positive economic indicators have come out like a lower-than-expected January inflation rate and a strong jobs report. Financial expert Ric Edelman explained the resilience of the economy and what’s going on with cryptocurrency.

“It’s proving to be surprisingly resilient. The jobs data was very good that just came out, unemployment rate remains low. Interest rates are stable and hopefully coming down. Overall, consumer prices are doing okay as well,” said Eldelman.

RELATED | Job growth beats forecast. Is the economy rebounding?

“A lot of folks have been widely fearing a recession. It doesn’t seem to be in sight at any moment, but there are continuing concerns: the tariffs, global economics. And in fact, if you look closely at the jobs data, almost all the jobs created in this last report were in the healthcare sector, which doesn’t spell well for the overall economy, just that one sector. So there is some weakness, and this is why investors remain a little bit nervous,” said Eldelman.

Younger Americans are buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, seeing it as a path to the American dream.

“This particular crypto winter, as it’s called. It’s the ninth time Bitcoin has fallen this much. Came out of nowhere, and it surprised everybody, including me,” said Eldelman.

“We basically are seeing a tale of two cities. On the one hand, prices are down dramatically over the past couple of months. They may fall even further yet. But if you look beyond the numbers at the fundamental growth and development of the technology, it’s all looking really very exciting.”

For investors, Eldelman had the following advice:

This is a period of extreme uncertainty… And for that reason, you should do two things. Number one, continue invest slowly but steadily. In other words, not a single lump sum, but invest a little bit every month on a regular basis. And second, stay focused on 10 years from now, not 10 days from now.