Woman loses $1,800 to phone scammers posing as Sheriff’s

SAN DIEGO — A senior citizen says she was scammed out of a whole lot of {dollars} after receiving a telephone name from criminals claiming to be the San Diego County Sheriff’s Division.

Sandra Blackie says she obtained a name from criminals posing to be from the Sheriff’s division, saying she missed jury obligation and that there was a warrant out for her arrest. Then, they instructed her to pay a wonderful, but it surely was all a rip-off.

“The second factor they stated to me was, ‘Effectively, you are able to do nothing and we’ll simply come arrest you’ and me pondering it was actual, I felt scared. After which the third was you may pay a $900 quantity and we’ll provide the pointers as to how to try this with COVID and all the things, we’re just a little bit restricted so it’s a particular approach to pay,” Blackie stated.

The sufferer was then instructed to ship the cash via a Bitcoin ATM machine inside a laundromat off Linda Vista Street in Mission Valley.

Officers warn the general public if ever directed to ship authorities cash via a Bitcoin machine to cease what you’re doing, since you’re being scammed.

“I’m out $1,800,” Blackie stated.

Blackie realized she was scammed however now says she’s struggling to succeed in an officer to even file a police report.

“I waited round on Might 4th, fifth and sixth for 5 hours after calling the non-emergency line, ready for a police man to point out up in order that I could make a report,” Blackie stated.

The San Diego Police Division says they’re trying into the incident. In the meantime, the Sheriff’s division says no worker of theirs will ever contact you by phone to demand cash.

“At 65, with this occurring, I really feel susceptible,” Blackie stated.

FOX 5 additionally reached out to the Bitcoin ATM firm, Coin Flip. They launched an announcement saying partly:

“CoinFlip takes issues of safety and anti-money laundering (AML) extremely critically…We encourage anybody who suspects to be a sufferer of a rip-off to name our 24/7 award profitable customer support group straight in order that we are able to escalate the matter…”