SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – You’ve probably heard of scammers trying to get you to send gift cards or reloadable credit cards. But what about Bitcoin? Sioux Falls police say that’s happened to a local business over the weekend, a first of its kind scam in the area.
Sioux Falls police say a scammer convinced an employee of a business on the east side of the city to give them $3,600- in Bitcoin.
It happened Friday afternoon.
“Had an employee that received a phone call, ended up being a scam but the person that called claimed that they were essentially a regional manager,” Sioux Falls Police Department, Sam Clemens said.
Police say the person on the phone was able to convince the employee to take cash from the business, and then go to a kiosk and buy bitcoin. The employee then gave information for the Bitcoin to the scammer.
“The real challenge with this is once they purchase that bitcoin and give the people the number, it’s gone, it’s untraceable,” Clemens said.
Clemens says when you get a call from from a person who is claiming to be someone, you need to verify it’s actually them.
“Call somebody else to verify if the stuff is true or not, in this case they could have called the manager, supervisor, and checked with them, but it’s all too often the scammers keep people on the phone and are very good at convincing them they need to purchase gift cards, purchase bitcoin, whatever the case may be,” Clemens said.
Police say the employee will not be charged with taking money from the business, because they were the victim in this situation.