A 76-year-old woman from Frisco, Texas, has come forward to share her harrowing experience of being duped into depositing over $32,000 into a bitcoin ATM, after being tricked by scammers who impersonated cybersecurity agents. Susan Mayfield recounted the incident, which began on July 23, when she received a threatening alert on her laptop that appeared to originate from Microsoft. The alert warned her that her computer had been hacked and encouraged her to call a phone number provided on the screen.
Upon contacting the number, she spoke with a man who claimed to be a technical expert. He informed her of five foreign IP addresses accessing her computer and alleged that hackers had already extracted $32,800 from her bank account. Following his instructions, Mayfield reached out to her bank using another number provided by the scammer.
In a shocking twist, she was directed to withdraw $15,000 at one bank and another $17,800 from a different institution. The scammer convinced her that depositing these amounts into a bitcoin ATM at a Fast Track convenience store in Lake Dallas would safeguard her funds from further theft. “I could not believe I had fallen for it,” she admitted, expressing deep regret about her experience.
The situation escalated as two additional men, claiming to represent the Federal Reserve, contacted Mayfield shortly after. They presented fake identification and pressured her to withdraw even larger sums from her investment accounts and invest in gold bars. It was at this juncture that Mayfield recognized she had been misled.
Recalling a recent case in Garland where a victim lost $25,000 in a similar scam involving a direct cash handoff, Mayfield noted the need for heightened awareness around fraud. In her case, due to the nature of bitcoin transactions being difficult to track, the FBI indicated that there were limited options for recovery. Mayfield took the proactive step of filing a report with the Federal Trade Commission in hopes of aiding in the tracking of the fraudulent activity and preventing others from falling victim to similar schemes.
Reflecting on her ordeal, Mayfield warned others, stating, “If it can happen to me, it can happen to them. It’s a huge, huge life lesson.” In light of such incidents, the FBI recommends that individuals refrain from calling phone numbers included in suspicious alerts. Instead, they should independently verify the contact information for institutions like their bank. If one falls victim to a bitcoin scam, the FBI advises filing a police report and contacting the owner of the bitcoin ATM in hopes of recovering lost funds, although such recovery isn’t guaranteed.
