Eagan police help senior couple avoid losing life savings after bystander calls 911
Police say an Eagan, Minnesota, couple in their 70s was one screen away from losing $125,000 on Monday.
The couple believed the Federal Trade Commission had contacted them to help them move their life savings over to Bitcoin.
"The elderly couple come in, and I did notice that they went straight to the machine," Roy Solis with Farmer's Grandson Eatery said. "And so I didn't say anything, but the one young lady that was here with her two friends, she did come up to me, and she said, 'I think there's two people over there getting scammed right now.'"
That bystander called 911, and Eagan police say an officer arrived moments later, stopping them from completing the transaction.
"I went over there and I spoke to them. I said, 'Excuse me, folks, I just want to let you know this machine is often accredited to scammers.' And the husband, he looked very intelligent, he looked at me and said, 'No, I know what we're doing. We're alright, thank you.'" Solis said.
Sgt. Rich Evans with the Eagan Police Department says the couple had a data breach about two weeks prior and had their identities stolen.
"So in the last couple weeks, they've been working on trying to work with the banks to make sure they can protect their identities and preserve their financial status," Evans said.
Monday morning, the couple received a phone call from a person claiming to be from the FTC, who said he was there to help them protect their identities and preserve their finances.
It was that caller who gave them instructions that led them to the Bitcoin ATM at Farmer's Grandson Eatery.
"The scammer was so convincing, so believable, and had wrapped them into this confidence to the level where he truly believed, if he didn't do this, he was going to be out everything," Evans said. "If it weren't for the citizen that was in shopping that day, having the wherewithal to look and say, 'This doesn't feel right,' that couple would have lost everything."
Police say scams like this are on the rise, so it's important to be vigilant now more than ever.
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