WESTLAKE, OH — A store manager at a Westlake gas station has now stopped cryptocurrency scammers twice, most recently saving a woman from potentially losing everything in her savings account.
Rose Crumbley has worked at the Westlake Marathon long enough to consider her regulars family. So when she spotted a woman suspiciously feeding cash into the store's cryptocurrency ATM, she stepped in.
"Oh no. No. Not if I have something to do with it," Crumbley said.
Crumbley alerted the store's owner, who surveillance video shows walking up to the 45-year-old woman, pointing out a sign warning of rising cryptocurrency fraud, then taking the woman's phone and confronting the caller.
Crumbley then took the woman outside.
"I was like you are being scammed. She's like no, no, no, no. I feel so stupid. I said look. I'm calling Westlake police. I have them on speed dial," Crumbley said.
That's because this was not the first time Crumbley intervened. Last June, police say an 85-year-old woman came into the store about to send $18,000 in cash to someone posing as her bank.
Crumbley called 911.
"I have a lady up here attempting to be scammed," Crumbley said in that call.
Crumbley says the scammers' effectiveness is not a reflection of their victims
"I'm not going to stand here and say that people are naive. I'm not going to say that they don't know any better. It's because these scammers are so good at their tactics," Crumbley said.
Westlake police say in the latest case Monday, scammers called the woman claiming she owed a fine for missing federal jury duty. She deposited more than $1,900 before Crumbley stopped her.
"She said they were asking for everything that was in her savings," Crumbley said. "She is literally crying on this shoulder, kept saying 'I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid.' I'm like you're not stupid, you didn't know," Crumbley said.
Her advice: if you don't recognize a phone number, don't answer it.
As for the scammers, Crumbley has a warning.
"We're coming for you. We're coming for you," Crumbley said.
When asked who "we" is, Crumbley's answer was simple: "Everybody."
Westlake police are working to track down the scammers and possibly freeze the accounts.
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