WINDSOR, Colo — An 85-year-old Windsor woman never expected one phone call to cost her thousands of dollars.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous because of the incident, said she and her husband lost $14,300 after a scammer convinced them their devices had been compromised.
"My husband was working on his computer, and suddenly there was a scroll along his screen, and it said, 'As if Microsoft called this number, you know your computer has been compromised,'" she said.
The couple panicked and wanted to fix the problem immediately.
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The scammer then asked which bank they used and claimed the bank's fraud department was investigating activity at a Windsor branch.
“He asked for the bank account, or what bank? And so we told him the bank, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, I'll get their fraud department on the line because their fraud department is looking at that branch in Windsor.’”
The woman said she was then told to withdraw $15,000 and go to a Bitcoin ATM, something she had never heard of or used before.
“He asked us to start putting money into Bitcoin to establish an account in the Bitcoin machine.”
And she wasn't the only person to encounter this type of scam.
A local liquor store manager said he has seen elderly customers come into the store to use Bitcoin ATMs.
When one customer couldn't figure out how to use the machine, the manager said she was instructed to buy gift cards instead.
The victim also said the scammer instructed her to provide the gift card numbers.
The woman said she eventually lost $14,300.
Windsor Police say the amount of money lost in scams is increasing.
“The dollar value of each instance is rising significantly,” said Aaron Lopez with Windsor Police.
Police say Windsor residents lost nearly $3 million to scams last year.
But by September, that total had already been surpassed.
Lopez said scammers are targeting people across generations.
“It really encapsulates all ages, and nobody's too young or too old to be a victim or at least a target for these types of crimes," Lopez said. “Cryptocurrency stuff is cases where we're having folks that are asked to transfer money through cryptocurrency."
Police are urging people to slow down if someone unexpectedly calls and asks for money.
Lopez said an unsolicited request for payment should immediately raise a red flag.
“Hang up the phone. If you're ever being asked for money over the phone by somebody who called you, that should be an automatic red flag.”
Police are also putting warning signs on Bitcoin ATMs to prevent people from sending money to scammers.
The victim said she hopes others will take extra steps before sending money.
“First thing you should do is go to the U.S. Attorney's website, and they have a whole list of all of the wire fraud, you know, scams.”
For anyone who receives a suspicious call, police recommend hanging up and independently contacting the agency, business, or financial institution the caller claims to represent.
