WESTLAKE, Ohio — Westlake Police is asking people to be careful after they said officers found a woman depositing thousands of dollars of cash into a Crypto ATM.
“Education is the key. Westlake Police has been putting signs on every crypto ATM in our city to try to help people realize that you're probably getting scammed if you're using this machine,” said Captain Jerry Vogel.
Still, Vogel said it’s easy for people to fall for these scams.
“The story is so believable to the victims that they fall for it,” said Vogel.
Vogel said it’s not a matter of someone’s education or how much money they have.
He said scammers are good at what they do, which is how Westlake officers recently caught a 71-year-old woman feeding nearly $5,500 into a Crypto ATM located inside a convenience store on Center Ridge Road at Dover Center.
“She was just putting money into it, look like hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The clerks actually tried to talk to her and say, listen, you're, you're probably getting scammed here. You're not a normal customer at this crypto ATM,” said Vogel.
Unfortunately, the woman did not believe the clerk, so they called the police, who eventually got her to listen to reason.
“The officers talked to her about scams and how the scammers walk a victim right through the whole process,” said Vogel.
Now, Vogel is asking people to be careful.
“Please talk to your relatives, especially now around the holidays, everyone will be seeing relatives. Maybe they don't always see. Talk to your relatives, mostly the elderly are falling victim to these types of scams,” said Vogel.
Vogel is hopeful they’ll be able to get some of that woman’s money back.
