Cyber Monday Scams: Texas DPS and Experts Warn Shoppers to Slow Down and Spot Red Flags<\/a><\/p>\nNueces County Judge Connie Scott said the victim was targeted by scammers who convinced her that she had an active warrant and needed to pay immediately or face additional penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was told that there was a warrant for her arrest and if she didn’t go down to the kiosk and pay this money immediately that it was going to even increase,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
The “kiosk” Scott was referring to is a Bitcoin ATM, a machine that converts U.S. dollars into the unregulated cryptocurrency. The woman followed the scammers\u2019 instructions, withdrawing and converting roughly $9,000 into Bitcoin.<\/p>\n
Scott said scammers even used her name and falsified documents to convince the victim the threat was real.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I did see the documents that had her name on it and unfortunately my name was used as well on that which just breaks my heart that anybody is scammed using my name,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s office also noted it is choosing not to disclose any personal information about the victim at her request.<\/p>\n
Because the transaction was made in Bitcoin, recovering the funds will be nearly impossible, according to law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Nueces County Sheriff J.C. Hooper said these types of scams often originate far outside the region \u2014 and sometimes outside the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese perpetrators will never be caught because you can’t track them. They’re not here in town, most of the time they’re not here in the state and sometimes they’re not even in the country,\u201d Hooper said.<\/p>\n
Hooper also said scammers have recently impersonated his office in phone scams, using real deputies\u2019 names or spoofed caller ID information to make the calls seem legitimate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a recording of an example scam call impersonating the sheriff’s office,\u201d Hooper said in one of the examples shared with 3NEWS.<\/p>\n
He said these schemes are growing increasingly sophisticated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you call us, right, you’ll know that you’re talking to us but if you accept a call from someone claiming to be a deputy, and you know what? A lot of times they’ll use a real deputy’s name. They can go to our social media accounts and they can get the real name of Nueces County sheriff’s deputies,\u201d Hooper said.<\/p>\n
Scott and Hooper both emphasized that no government entity \u2014 local, state or federal \u2014 will ever demand payment through Bitcoin, gift cards, text messages or other unconventional methods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a warrant for your arrest or you go to court they usually send you downstairs to take care of your fine immediately. We do not send those through the mail, we won’t send you a text message, we don’t ask you to go to the kiosk,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Residents are urged to hang up on suspicious calls, not click on unfamiliar links and verify any claims directly by contacting the appropriate agency themselves.<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know believe you\u2019ve been targeted by a scam, call CCPD’s non-emergency line at 361-886-2600.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"County officials tell 3News ways you and your loved ones can avoid falling victim. NUECES COUNTY, Texas \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-72195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}