FAIRFIELD — The police department is warning residents of a new scam involving Bitcoin and impersonating officials that has impacted some residents.
The department received a call on Nov. 22 from a resident who sent $7,000 in Bitcoin, a prominent cryptocurrency, to an unknown account of someone claiming to be with the fraud department before realizing she was being scammed, Lt. Mike Paris said in a news release.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Paris said such scams have been reported a few times in Fairfield.
“There is a variety of these scams occurring with the avenue to deposit the money being the Bitcoin ATM,” he said. “This is the only one so far using the police alias.”
Paris said the resident who reported the incident in November told police she received a call from an unknown man claiming to work for the fraud department of an online retailer.
“He stated that fraud was detected on her account and informed her that she would have to transfer her money to a Bitcoin account,” Paris said. “The resident was then purportedly ‘transferred’ to the Federal Trade Commission where she spoke to an officer who sent her pictures of their alleged credentials.”
Paris said the resident received another call from a woman posing as a Fairfield police officer, who advised her to do what the first caller had asked of her. The phone number used by the second…
