MANITOWOC, Wis. (WBAY) – A Consumer First Alert about a dramatic increase in a type of investment scam.
Manitowoc police are working to break the scam cycle.
“We don’t want people to be scammed out of 30, 40, 50 years of hard work because of a very convincing scammer,” police Capt. Cooper Schmidt said.
Police tell Consumer First Alert some people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars — for some, their life savings — to cryptocurrency scams.
“Some of the totals that we’re seeing in the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars that are scammed from our citizens, and our heart breaks for them because often this money is oftentimes transferred so quickly in the crypto world from wallet to wallet, it ends up overseas before law enforcement is even made aware of it,” Schmidt said.
“It’s very difficult to investigate,” he added, “but the City of Manitowoc P.D. is doing everything that we can.”
Capt. Schmidt says scammers are professional and pushy. They do this to make a living, and they are very good at it.
They’re extremely elaborate. The majority of scams take weeks or months to unfold.
Manitowoc police are trying to educate people. They posted a warning on the department’s Facebook page and talked with WBAY.
Schmidt said it’s important for everyone to learn the warning signs. The FBI says this about cryptocurrency fraud:
Crypto scammers often lure victims using social media, text messages or dating sites.
They might use names of your Facebook friends or officials’ names.
They start discussing cryptocurrency investments and promise a quick return on your investment.
They’ll say they’re an expert and provide fake proof.
They’ll ask you to transfer money into crypto, often to one of their websites. The website name might closely mimic, or “spoof,” a legitimate site and have a professional-looking portfolio.
“It’s very, very important that we spread this message. Very, very important that people ask for help before they send any money to, really, anybody,” Schmidt said.
“Oftentimes the victims of these scammers are in disbelief that they’re being scammed, despite law enforcement warnings, because they’ve made such an emotional connection with their scammer,” he said.
Consumer First Alert found new data from the Federal Trade Commission showing people reported losing $1.4 billion to cryptocurrency fraud in 2024.
Younger people lost money more often.
People ages 20 to 29 reported losing money more often than people age 70 and older. But when older adults lost money, they lost far more than any other age group.
The FBI says it’s investigating fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms.
If you feel you’re a victim, stop sending any money to the suspected criminals and report it to your local law enforcement.
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