KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland, including Liberty. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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Liberty police are using signs, along with social media posts, to alert residents about a Bitcoin scam.
A store clerk last week in Liberty helped a man who was about to be taken for $30,000.
“I was on my computer trying to do something, and all of a sudden, it locked up,” the intended victim of the scam told Liberty Police.
KSHB 41 News Northland reporter Fernanda Silva obtained body camera video that shows the interaction.
“I called what I thought was Microsoft or whatever,” he told police.
Margy Tatro, the manager at Liberty Wine and Spirits, was working when she heard him on the phone with the scammers.
“It sounded suspicious,” she said. “He was getting flustered, between me trying to get him to realize he was being scammed and the guy on the phone.”
Tatro called Liberty Police.
Captain Nathan Mulch with Liberty Police says the man almost didn’t believe police.
“At first, he thought detectives in plain clothes might have been part of the scam," Mulch said. "Then, when he saw uniformed officers show up, it made him realize this wasn’t true."
The body camera footage is what led me to Margy.
There was a clue in the video — it showed an Athena Bitcoin machine. On Athena’s website, I discovered they have three machines in Liberty. I cross-referenced pictures on Google and found her.
“I wasn’t doing it for recognition," Tatro said. "I was doing it because I would want somebody to do that for my family if they were in that same situation."
Clay County Prosecutor Zachary Thompson says that kind of scam is becoming more common.
“Scammers like cryptocurrency because the transaction is anonymous,” Thompson said.
Over an 18-month period in Clay County, there were 150 victims who lost a total of $2.5 million, according to Thompson.
He says no arrests have been made.
“They’re literally an ocean away, and it is impossible for local law enforcement to investigate those types of offenses," Thompson said. "That’s why we put such an emphasis on prevention."
Prevention include fliers that the prosecutor’s office and Liberty Police have been posting in the 10 different Bitcoin machines around the city.
The fliers list some of the red flags for scams:
- Receiving directions over the phone
- Being told to lie about sending money
- Paying in cryptocurrency
“No matter how old you are, you are a target for scammers,” Thompson said.
Thompson says urgency, secrecy, and method of payment are some other red flags.
"If you want to invest in Bitcoin, do your research, do your due diligence, but that's not where you pay a bill or a bond," said Captain Mulch.
After the incident, Liberty Wine and Spirits decided to put up its own sign to prevent scams.
“I don’t want it to happen to somebody else,” Tatro said.
Silva reached out to Athena Bitcoin for comment, but did not get a response.
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