Sudbury police say a scammer impersonated Chief Scott Nix in a bitcoin scam
SUDBURY – Posing as Sudbury Police Chief Scott Nix, a con man on Monday nearly convinced a local woman to empty her bank account, instructing her to send him the money via bitcoin or face jail time, authorities said.
Fortunately, the woman found out things weren’t right — she lost $4,500, instead of the “huge sum” the scammer demanded, Detective Lt. Wayne Shurling said Tuesday.
“We’ve been killed with these things (bitcoin scams),” Shurling said, noting that several people in the city have been scammed out of thousands of dollars.
More:A Bitcoin ATM in Sudbury has been linked to at least three attempted scams
In the latest scheme, a woman received a call from a party listed as “No Caller ID” on her phone.
They started asking her several things and then hung up. But a short time later, the woman received a call from the Sudbury Police Department’s business number – 978-443-1042.
Shurling said the number was spoofed. “This incident went on for several hours,” he said.
More:A woman was about to lose $30,000 in the Bitcoin scheme. Store clerk in Sudbury intervenes
The person on the line identified himself as Nix. He said a package sent out of the country had been seized and contained drugs and money. The scammer convinced his target that the return address was hers and that the police would come to her home to arrest her, Shurling said.
Then the scammer told the woman she wouldn’t be arrested if she went to Sudbury Sundries, 100 Boston Post Road (Route 20), and used the Bitcoin ATM to deposit money, then gave the code for the money.
The woman realized it was a scam as she put the money into the machine, so she only lost a portion of what she had on hand, Shurling said.
This is at least the fourth incident where someone has fallen victim to a bitcoin scam in Sudbury. In each case, they were sent to Sudbury Sundries — a convenience store — to use the ATM, Shurling said.
The store is not involved, he said, but scammers often use the Internet to determine the location of Bitcoin ATMs. That, in addition to Sudbury being an affluent community, makes it attractive to fraudsters.
More:Holliston police warn of ‘grandparent scam’; the victim lost more than $10K
Previously, a man was defrauded of around $50,000 in May; a woman was almost defrauded of $30,000 in June; and another woman was defrauded of $1,900 in July. In the June incident, the woman received a bitcoin code for $30,000, but a store employee became suspicious and stopped her from giving the code to the scammer, police said.
Shurling said the scams are a little different, but ultimately they seek the same thing. He said that legitimate businesses and legitimate government agencies will never call people and demand payment via bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. He said people should always contact the agency or business that contacted them to either report or confirm a scam.
“The money is going offshore,” Shurling said. “Once it’s sent, it’s almost impossible to get back.”
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or [email protected]. For up-to-date public safety news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.
