A North Olmsted resident narrowly avoided losing a critically important amount of money to a complex scam that involved a fraudulent PayPal email and cryptocurrency ATMs.
The incident began on July 7 when the resident received a fake email from “PayPal” regarding an unauthorized $400 purchase.Believing the email to be legitimate, she called the provided number to dispute the charge. The scammer, posing as a PayPal customer service agent, then pretended to transfer her to a fraud department representative from her bank.this second scammer instructed the resident to withdraw $5,000 from her bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin cryptocurrency ATM. She was advised to tell the bank teller the money was for a vacation if questioned about the large withdrawal.
The resident followed the instructions,but the first cryptocurrency ATM she tried was out of order. The scammer then directed her to two other ATMs. The third machine, located in Berea, accepted $4,900 of her deposit. The scammer then convinced her to withdraw an additional $8,000 and attempt to deposit it.Though, the ATM stopped accepting her money, and the scammer became agitated. He assured her she would eventually get her money back.
The situation took a turn when the ATM’s screen displayed a message prompting the victim to contact the machine operator. The operator questioned the large transactions and revealed that the “bank representative” was a scammer. The cryptocurrency ATM company employee stated they would reverse the $4,900 deposit and return the money by mail.The employee also advised the resident to contact her actual bank to report the attempted fraud.
A police officer later advised the woman to report any further fraudulent charges.
