HOUSTON – Every year, it seems like scammers find new ways to defraud people.
Since the rise of cryptocurrency, criminals are turning to it more and more often as a way to scam people out of their hard-earned cash.
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“We’re getting these every day. Every day we’re getting calls from people getting these calls. A lot of them catch it before they’re scammed, but a lot of them are getting scammed out,” said Lt. Abraham Alanis with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
The particular scam Alanis is talking about is where somebody claiming to be a law enforcement officer calls someone saying you have a warrant out for your arrest. The arrest warrants are often times related to the scammer claiming the victim missed jury duty.
“They’ll use a spoofed number that’s probably traced, you could trace it back to the agency. They use a name of an actual officer that’s working because they’ll find out our directory and get a good name. So they have all the information of officers that are actually working and use these names to trick people,” Alanis said.
The scammers will try to get you to transfer money to them in order for you not to be arrested. One of the particular forms of payment they request in many cases is the cryptocurrency bitcoin, which is something extremely difficult to trace.
“Bitcoin can be very difficult, because once it goes into bitcoin it could be transferred from location, location, location very quickly. And then it’s pretty much gone,” Alanis said.
It’s not just in Houston. According to the FBI, in 2023, there were 69,468 complaints of scams involving cryptocurrency nationwide for combined losses of $5.6 billion. Texas had the third most complaints of any state, with 4,770. Total losses in Texas for 2023 are estimated at $411,914,142. The most common type of fraud using cryptocurrency was investment fraud.
The FBI says anyone who has fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam should report it. You can do so at this link.
So how can you protect yourself from falling victim to the particular scam Alanis mentioned?
“When you get these calls, take a step back. Don’t rush to do anything. Wait. Get the information. I know once they tell you that you have to do it immediately, it’s a scam,” Alanis said. “You can go ahead, hang up. You don’t have to deal with them anymore. But if you still feel uncomfortable because they’re claiming it’s a law enforcement agency, make the call. Get the number. Do a little research and make a call to verify who they are.”