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Grand Traverse County Woman loses $48,000 in Bitcoin Scam

The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office said a woman was scammed out of $48,000 in an increasingly common fraud case involving bitcoin.

Deputies say the victim received a call from an unknown person asking to be sent money through a bitcoin kiosk. The victim believed the caller was from PayPal’s fraud department and withdrew $51,000 from her bank. She ended up sending more than $48,000 to an untraceable bitcoin account. The sheriff’s office says the money is not recoverable.

They advise the public if they “get a phone call from somebody and they want you to pay with bitcoin pain or fraud or a gift cards or anything like that, it’s likely a scam and kind of a way to test that is tell them that you’ll take their phone number and you call them back.”

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The Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office continues their effort to fight scammers by hosting fraud prevention presentations.

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