CAPE CORAL, Fla. — A Cape Coral woman said she lost nearly $20,000 after falling victim to an elaborate phone scam that led her to deposit money into a Bitcoin machine at a local gas station.
Fox 4's Bella Line spoke with the woman first:
Vicky Cotton's husband called FOX 4 after the incident, which Cape Coral police said is becoming increasingly common in the area.
Cotton said the scam began with a notification on her phone telling her to call Apple support. Instead, someone named "Kevin" called her directly.
"I didn't even think that's gonna be happen to me," Cotton said.
Cotton said Kevin told her that hackers were after her money and she needed to withdraw $20,000 to keep it safe.
"He said, "The only you can do, you have to withdraw the money in the bank, and we can deposit somewhere else that they cannot trace your money,'" Cotton said.
For nearly five hours, Cotton said Kevin controlled her every move. First, he directed her to drive to multiple Suncoast Credit Union locations to withdraw the money, then to a gas station to put the cash into a Bitcoin machine.
Cotton said Kevin sent her QR codes to deposit $17,350 into a Bitcoin machine at the gas station.
"I said, 'No, I'm scared. I don't want to do this thing.' [He said] 'No, you have to do it. You need your money to deposit the money right away,'" Cotton said.
The scam continued when Cotton said Kevin had her drive to Lowe's to purchase $2,000 worth of Apple gift cards.
"You hurry up, because we need, we had time to finish this," Cotton said Kevin told her.
After Cotton sent pictures of the gift cards to Kevin, she said the phone went silent. He hung up and she said she has not heard from him since.
Cape Coral police are investigating Cotton's case and said she is not the only victim.
"We've had a lot of people who have either made reports of someone tried to scam me in a similar type of way, we've had plenty of people who have fallen for these types of scams as well," said Lisa Greenberg, Cape Coral Police public affairs officer.
Cotton said they are fighting to get the money back.
"Don't trust to anybody in the phone," Cotton said.
Fox 4's Bella Line reached out to the Bitcoin company for information but have not heard back yet.
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