MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas (KXXV) — McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara has a warning about cryptocurrency scams.
The sheriff says his agency has received hundreds of phone calls about these scams.
"We’re seeing scams of all kinds and begging citizens not to fall for it," Sheriff McNamara said.
He says scammers are contacting victims through email or text and threatening them with a lie.
For example, the scammer will say their child needs to be bailed out, or there’s a warrant out for their arrest, or they need to pay more taxes.
Sheriff McNamara says the victims fall for it, and put money in crypto kiosks.
"We had a woman in New Braunfels who put $111,000 in a crypto kiosk machine and her money is gone," he said.
The FBI has put out a warning about the scams too because reported losses have jumped from $32,033 in 2023 to a whopping $3.839,816 last year.
Sheriff McNamara says he’s seen people put their whole life savings in crypto machines after receiving a threat from a scammer.
"We were lucky a woman who put $15,000 in one machine got her money back — we got a search warrant on the machine and we were able to get her money back immediately."
He says time is of the essence — so if you’ve been scammed, notify police immediately.
Sheriff McNamara says the cryptocurrency scams often prey on the elderly, so before you pay any amount of money — contact the sheriff’s office for help.
