Men posing as U.S. government agents scammed a Twin Cities woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin, gift cards and cash, according to police.
The ruse began in early March with the Maple Grove woman receiving an unsolicited email, and ended in late April, but not before more than $450,000 was stolen by suspects who remain at large, according to a police search warrant affidavit filed this week in Hennepin County District Court.
“The two male suspects she spoke with claimed to be federal agents needing the funds for an investigation and promised to reimburse her afterwards,” read the affidavit, which sought a judge’s permission to pursue records associated with two WhatsApp phone numbers that were used to contact the woman.
This is at least the second large-scale case in Minnesota involving perpetrators reaching out in an email and stealing someone’s cryptocurrency.
An Anoka County man opened an email, realized his mistake and watched as more than $2 million was drained from his bitcoin account in a phishing scam, according to a state investigation begun in September. No arrests or charges have been filed in that case.
Brooklyn Park police Sgt. Jake Tuzinski, who is heading up this investigation on behalf of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, cautioned everyone to “take a pause while reading these emails. Verify who the email is coming from. Check not just the name of the header such as ‘From: Coinbase,’ but also ... look at the full email domain it is coming from.”
According to the affidavit in the Maple Grove case:
A woman told police that she received an email on March 3 and was in contact with the suspects through their WhatsApp phone numbers. She then sent bitcoin, gift card numbers, wire transfers and cash exceeding $450,000 to the suspects until April 29.
