The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a phone scam that uses artificial intelligence to imitate the sheriff’s voice and trick people into depositing money into their Bitcoin accounts.
This scam is old with modern techniques.
Capt. Will Holton said the woman received a call from a sheriff’s office dispatch number and someone pretending to be him. The caller said the woman had a warrant for her arrest for failure to serve on jury duty, and that she had obtained the warrant for her arrest to avoid paying a fine.
The Sheriff’s Office will not solicit money over the phone for failure to perform jury duty or arrests.
According to the sheriff’s office, the caller instructed the victim to withdraw $7,500 from the bank and not to say what the money was used for when asked. The caller then gave her the QR code for her account and instructed her to go to a Bitcoin ATM at a convenience store and deposit cash.
Investigator Jesse Gammel said: “As soon as the physical currency was placed at the ATM and converted to Bitcoin, it was placed into a digital wallet provided to her via a QR code. Within 10 minutes, the digital currency was converted to Bitcoin. was divided into several parts.” Through multiple transactions using several other digital wallets,
After depositing the cash, the woman went to the sheriff’s office to speak with Holton, who did not know her voice was being used in the scam, the sheriff’s office said.
“While it is unlikely that we will be able to get her money back, we are considering possible options to recover some of the $7,500,” Gammel said. “Each case depends on the circumstances.”
If you receive a call from a sheriff’s office number on the same or similar property, hang up immediately and call the sheriff’s office directly with any questions at 615-898-7777. Recommended.
This article was originally published in Nashville Tennessean: Rutherford Sheriff warns of AI phone scams.
