When Hastings Police Officer Matt Green heard about the scam, he couldn’t believe how detailed it was. “They had an answer for everything,” said Green.

Scammers called the home of a Hastings resident claiming to be Dakota County Sheriff’s Office. Their caller ID showed up as the correct number for the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office and they used the names of real deputies in their introduction and on their voicemail.

Scammers claimed that the resident was under arrest and that an escrow would have to be paid in bitcoin or an officer would come to the resident’s house to arrest them. Scammers provided a picture of the arrest warrant and told the resident if the call ended for any reason, it would be considered not obeying an officer and they would be arrested. Police radio chatter could be heard in the background of the call.

With detailed instructions, the scammers told the resident to go to an ATM and buy $3,000 worth of bitcoin. They walked the resident through each step with specificity, explaining how it was a new government policy to handle cryptocurrency because of the ease of transferring and using it.

It was only afterword with the money long gone, that the resident realized the whole baroque process had been a scam.

Scams and frauds are nothing new, but their application has shifted even in the last few years. Telemarketer scams and social media ploys came with the rise of each of their respective platforms, but are now being used increasingly in conjunction with cryptocurrency.

The rise of cryptocurrency provided an easy and untraceable way for victims to send money to their would-be scammers. An increasing number of ATMs across even small communities allows users to exchange their money into cryptocurrency and therefore becomes yet another way scammers can target their victims.

“Anytime anyone is told there is an issue with an account or anything else with bitcoin, its probably a scam,” said Hastings Police Chief Dave Wilske.

Wilske underscores the point that no government agency uses cryptocurrency for bail, taxes, or fees of any kind. Few companies even use cryptocurrency as a currency and none would cold call a client demanding payment with it.

The only people who do that are scammers.

“If you can think of it, they are coming up with it,” said Wilske, highlighting the breadth of scams seen even in the Hastings community.

Scammers have posed as grandchildren in need of bail, as fake boyfriends and girlfriends demanding payment, as Netflix technicians claiming issues with the user’s accounts, cybersecurity consultants, even as other residents attempting to sell anything from cars to newborn kittens.

Red flags appear throughout each of these scams. Voices online asking for prepaid credit cards, cryptocurrency, cash or even gold are a huge red flag. Reputable companies and city officials don’t do that under any circumstance. Online sellers on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist will never ask for a payment up front in cryptocurrency and giveaways and prizes demanding payment first are false.

These specifics are not comprehensive on identifying scams. Many scams, however, work to isolate the victim and push them into acting without thinking. Scammers don’t want the potential victim to ask questions or take a moment to think about what is happening which is why they impose time limits, demand victims stay on the phone and use other hard-sell tactics. Legitimate entities would never do this, and taking a moment to ask a loved one or call the entity back won’t automatically release data or cause an arrest.

“If they do this all day, its believable,” said Green.

When experiencing any of these red flags, or if callers feel unsure for any reason, Hastings Police encourage residents to call their non-emergency number at 651-322-2323 or to simply call 911.

Part of the insidious nature of scams is that victims don’t come forward because they are embarrassed that they were taken in. This silence only makes it easier for scammers to target others with the same ploy.

A KARE 11 investigation published on Aug. 5 exposed how in 2023 the city of Blaine accidentally wired more than $1.5 million to a fake company posing as a legitimate construction company working on a project in the city.

The scam wasn’t revealed to the public until the KARE 11 story. According to a Facebook post from the city of Blaine’s official account, “The City has not publicly released information relating to the scam prior to this statement as the case remains an active Federal investigation. […] Public disclosure of information relating to the crime could compromise the investigation, hindering the ongoing efforts to bring all responsible individuals to justice. Despite what was implied in the KARE11 report, this was not done in an attempt to hide information from members of our community.”

The post details how the city was made aware of the scam by September of 2023 and has recovered nearly half of the money lost, some $700,000. It also mentions increased safeguards for ensuring similar scams do not happen again including, “regular monitoring of vendor files to identify and verify changes, implementation of enhanced fraud prevention measures, screening to authenticate vendor change submissions, and continuing to conduct extensive employee training.”

Another similar scam took in the city of Cottage Grove for $1.2 million in 2021 with scammers posing as a legitimate company working on a sewer project in the city.

Due to the nature of wiring money, it is a singularly susceptible point of access for scammers. It can be incredibly difficult to regain money sent to the incorrect wiring address which is why scammers pose as legitimate companies and often attempt to provide last-minute changes to wiring instructions. Banks are aware of this weakness with wiring money and often impose strict policies on verbally checking wiring instructions for each and every wire, even for accounts that are regularly used.

This diligence is worth considering.

In order to provide a potential last point of friction between scammers and their victims, Green wanted to create a list of red flags in the very place where scams can happen: at the ATM. Flyers are set to be put up on ATMs across the city of Hastings detailing common red flags for transactions that might be scams, encourage residents to take a moment to think before they hit “send” and for them to call the police if they are unsure or feel unsafe.

Red flags listed on the flyer include fixing computer viruses with payment of cryptocurrency, sending cryptocurrency in order to win a giveaway, and any voice of a stranger instructing you on how to send cryptocurrency.

More than being aware of common scam tactics, the best protection from these types of scams is to not get caught up in them. Simply taking a moment to consider what is going on, not panicking and jumping right into action, can potentially save tens of thousands of dollars.