WINONA, Minn. – A convenience shop employee was duped into sending $4,200 from a store account to a fraudster who had set up an elaborate scam. Police were told that someone using the store manager’s name sent a text claiming that an emergency payment was needed via bitcoin to the FedEx delivery company. The employee was instructed to go to a bitcoin kiosk in a next-door convenience store and, using a code provided by the “manager,” to make the transfer online. This fraudster sent three separate instructions: For $1,400, $1,370 and $500. Attempts to cancel the transfers were too late, police said. The scam target was a combination convenience store and fueling station on Mankato Avenue across from the hospital. Police received the report about 12:30 p.m. The scam mirrored a similar theft in March from the Qdoba restaurant a few blocks away.
