LAMOILLE, Minn. – A scammer got away with almost $41,000 from a Cedar Valley man who was told by phone that his bank account had been compromised and to transfer all the assets into bitcoin and send it to a fresh account. The scammer arranged the new account – but it wasn’t at any bank and not in the victim’s name. Over a two-week period the victim, age 68, made 14 transfers ranging from $200 to $7,900. Sheriff’s investigators said the scammer had identified himself falsely as from Wells Fargo bank, where the man had savings and checking accounts. Why did the man comply with repeated instructions to switch his money into bitcoin and make the transfers? Said Deputy Sheriff Jeff Mueller: “They had their hooks into him.”
