Crime & Safety

Theft At Sudbury Bitcoin ATM Halted By Gas Station Clerk: Police

A clerk at the Boston Post Road gas station called police when he noticed an elderly woman trying to convert cash to cryptocurrency.

Sudbury police say an elderly woman was nearly scammed out of $30,000 recently.
Sudbury police say an elderly woman was nearly scammed out of $30,000 recently. (Neal McNamara/Patch)

SUDBURY, MA — An alert gas station clerk prevented an elderly woman from losing about $30,000 to scammers recently, according to Sudbury police.

The clerk at the Sudbury Quick Service gas station, 100 Boston Post Road, called police on Wednesday when he noticed the woman standing at a cryptocurrency machine with a large amount of cash. The gas station is home to a Bitcoin of America currency exchange machine.

According to police, the woman was the victim of a ransomware attack, and the scammers told her to convert her cash into Bitcoin to pay them off. Sudbury police say this is the second time someone has visited the Bitcoin machine at the behest of scammers.

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"Once cash is converted to bitcoin, it is often untraceable," police said. "This is the second time (that we know of) we’ve investigated a large dollar scam at this bitcoin machine, the first victim was not as fortunate, but we still are hopeful that our investigation will allow us to return nearly $50,000."

If you or someone you know has been the victim of a similar scam, contact the Federal Trade Commission or local police.

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