$16.6 BILLION. THAT’S HOW MUCH MONEY WAS LOST IN SOME KIND OF CYBERCRIME IN 2024. LOOK AT THIS DATA FROM THE FBI. THERE’S BEEN A STEADY INCREASE IN LOSSES REPORTED IN JUST THE LAST FIVE YEARS. SO YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE WHAT 2025 WILL LOOK LIKE ONCE THOSE NUMBERS COME IN. OFTEN THAT MONEY IS GONE FOREVER. UNTIL NOW. WESH 2 LINDSAY LOHAN FOUND A LOCAL SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT TRACING CRYPTOCURRENCY AND GETTING VICTIMS THEIR MONEY BACK. I CRIED IN THE PARKING LOT BECAUSE I KNEW I HAD TO COME HOME AND CONFESS IT TO MY HUSBAND, TO MY KIDS. TAMMY OWENS IS ONE OF LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE WHO FELL FOR A SCAM THAT WOULD WIPE OUT MOST FAMILIES FINANCIALLY. I’M TOO EMBARRASSED TO EVEN SAY HOW MUCH IT WAS, AND I WAS GOING TO GIVE THEM MORE. WHILE SHE’D RATHER NOT SHARE JUST HOW MUCH SHE LOST, IT’S IN THE TENS OF THOUSANDS. AND IT ALL STARTED WITH AN URGENT CALL. THEY CALLED ME AND SAID SOMEONE WAS AT THE WELLS FARGO WITH MY ID, CLAIMING TO BE ME, AND WANTING TO WITHDRAW $25,000. I KNOW YOU THINK YOU’D NEVER FALL FOR A SCAM, BUT IT’S NOT THAT EASY. THE CALLER KNEW THAT TAMMY HAD DEPOSITED A LARGE AMOUNT OF MONEY THE DAY BEFORE. HE KNEW HER INFORMATION, AND REFUSED TO LET HER GET OFF THE PHONE. OVER A FOUR HOUR PERIOD, HE CONVINCED HER THAT SOMEONE IN HER BANK WAS TRYING TO STEAL HER MONEY AND THAT SHE HAD TO WITHDRAW IT. HE THEN HAD HER SET UP A DIGITAL WALLET ON HER PHONE AND DEPOSIT THAT MONEY INTO A NEW ATM. IN OUR COUNTY ALONE, JUST WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY RELATED FRAUD, WE LOST ABOUT 7 MILLION LAST YEAR. RICHARD TRUMAN WORKS IN A DIFFERENT COUNTY THAN TAMMY’S CASE, BUT THIS MARION COUNTY DETECTIVE KNOWS EXACTLY HOW THESE SCAMS WORK. IT’S SENT TO A DIGITAL WALLET THAT THE SUSPECT HAS CONTROL OVER. BUT DETECTIVE TRUMAN IS NOW RECOVERING MONEY FOR THOSE VICTIMS. SO WE’VE SEIZED ABOUT 6.8 MILLION. WE’VE ALWAYS HEARD ONCE YOUR MONEY IS GONE, IT’S GONE. BUT THE MARION COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE IS WORKING WITH A PRIVATE COMPANY CALLED TRM LABS TO TRACE CRYPTO. KYLE ARMSTRONG, A FORMER FBI AGENT NOW WITH TRM LABS, EXPLAINS WHAT THEY DO. DURHAM LABS IS A BLOCKCHAIN INTELLIGENCE COMPANY. WHAT IS BLOCKCHAIN? YEAH, THAT’S SORT OF A LOT OF GOBBLEDYGOOK THERE. ANYTIME THERE’S A BITCOIN TRANSACTION, THAT TRANSACTION IS PUBLISHED ON THE OPEN INTERNET. AND THE BLOCKCHAIN IS ESSENTIALLY THE RECORDING OF THAT TRANSACTION. THE PROBLEM THOSE RECORDINGS ARE ANONYMOUS AND USE MULTIPLE NUMBERS AND LETTERS, MAKING IT NOTICE I SAID NEARLY. OUR COMPANY WORKS TO TO FOLLOW THOSE TRANSACTIONS, TO MAKE IT EASY TO GRAPH THOSE TRANSACTIONS, AND SIMPLER TO EXPLAIN. AND THEN ULTIMATELY, WE TRY TO IDENTIFY WHO’S CONTROLLING THE ADDRESSES. THAT INFORMATION GOES BACK TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, LIKE DETECTIVE TRUMAN. WE’RE NOT ALWAYS GOING TO BE PUTTING HANDCUFFS ON PEOPLE WITH THESE CASES, BECAUSE A LOT OF OUR SUSPECTS ARE OVERSEAS. BUT, YOU KNOW, WE’RE MAKING VICTIMS WHOLE IN ANOTHER WAY BY GETTING BACK THEIR MONEY. TAMMY HASN’T SEEN HER MONEY. I HAD TO CANCEL ALL MY CREDIT CARDS. I CANCELED TWO BANK ACCOUNTS. I HAD TO OPEN NEW ONES. AND IT’S B
Cryptocurrency scam victims get their money back with help of Marion County Sheriff’s Office
Victims lost $16.6 billion to cybercrime scams in 2024, but now the Marion County Sheriff’s Office is recovering money for some of those victims. Tammy Owens lost tens of thousands of dollars last year in a scam that all started with an urgent call from someone pretending to be with the fraud department at her bank. “They called me and said someone was at Wells Fargo with my ID claiming to be me, and wanted to withdraw $25,000,” Owens explained.Owens said the caller knew personal details, including that she had deposited a large amount of money the day before. The scammer had Owens on the phone for more than four hours and created a false emergency, claiming someone inside her bank was trying to steal her money. The scammer told her the only way to protect her cash was to withdraw it, create a digital wallet on her phone, and then deposit the money into another ATM. Owens complied. “I cried in the parking lot,” she said. “I cried in the parking lot because I knew I had to come home and confess it to my husband, to my kids.” Detective Richard Truman with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating Owens case because she lives in a different county, but said crypto-related fraud is taking a major toll.”In our county alone, just with cryptocurrency-related fraud, we lost about $7 million last year,” Det. Truman said. “It’s sent to a digital wallet that the suspect has control over,” Truman explained.However, his office was able to trace some of that money and he said it seized about $6.8 million last year. They are working with TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company, to do so. Former FBI agent Kyle Armstrong, now with TRM Labs, said, “Anytime there’s a bitcoin transaction, that transaction is published on the open internet, and the blockchain is essentially the recording of that transaction.” Those records are public but anonymous, filled with strings of letters and numbers, and routed through multiple addresses. That makes tracing difficult but not impossible.”Our company works to follow those transactions to make it easy to graph those transactions and simpler to explain,” Armstrong said. “Ultimately, we try to identify who’s controlling the addresses.”That information is then shared with law enforcement, like Det. Truman. “We’re not always going to be putting handcuffs on people with these cases, because a lot of our suspects are overseas,” Truman said. “But we’re making victims whole in another way, by getting back their money.”Unfortunately, Owens has not been able to get her money back. To top it off, she had to cancel two bank accounts and all her credit cards. Investigators in New Smyrna Beach are still working Owen’s case and told WESH 2 in a statement, “While some law‑enforcement agencies have, in certain cases, been able to trace and seize cryptocurrency, recovery is highly case‑specific and not guaranteed. It depends on several factors, including how quickly the scam is reported, how the funds were transferred, and whether the cryptocurrency can still be accessed or traced. Unfortunately, recovery has not been possible in this investigation at this point. In some cases, larger agencies with specialized cyber or financial‑crimes resources are able to pursue additional tracing options; however, even with those tools, recovery is not always possible.”Red flags:Law enforcement, banks, and government agencies will never ask you to withdraw money or move funds.If you feel pressured to act immediately, it’s likely a scam.If you get an unexpected call or text, hang up and call back using a trusted number (from a statement, official website, or the back of your card).
Victims lost $16.6 billion to cybercrime scams in 2024, but now the Marion County Sheriff’s Office is recovering money for some of those victims.
Tammy Owens lost tens of thousands of dollars last year in a scam that all started with an urgent call from someone pretending to be with the fraud department at her bank.
“They called me and said someone was at Wells Fargo with my ID claiming to be me, and wanted to withdraw $25,000,” Owens explained.
Owens said the caller knew personal details, including that she had deposited a large amount of money the day before.
The scammer had Owens on the phone for more than four hours and created a false emergency, claiming someone inside her bank was trying to steal her money. The scammer told her the only way to protect her cash was to withdraw it, create a digital wallet on her phone, and then deposit the money into another ATM. Owens complied.
“I cried in the parking lot,” she said. “I cried in the parking lot because I knew I had to come home and confess it to my husband, to my kids.”
Detective Richard Truman with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office is not investigating Owens case because she lives in a different county, but said crypto-related fraud is taking a major toll.
“In our county alone, just with cryptocurrency-related fraud, we lost about $7 million last year,” Det. Truman said. “It’s sent to a digital wallet that the suspect has control over,” Truman explained.
However, his office was able to trace some of that money and he said it seized about $6.8 million last year. They are working with TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company, to do so.
Former FBI agent Kyle Armstrong, now with TRM Labs, said, “Anytime there’s a bitcoin transaction, that transaction is published on the open internet, and the blockchain is essentially the recording of that transaction.”
Those records are public but anonymous, filled with strings of letters and numbers, and routed through multiple addresses. That makes tracing difficult but not impossible.
“Our company works to follow those transactions to make it easy to graph those transactions and simpler to explain,” Armstrong said. “Ultimately, we try to identify who’s controlling the addresses.”
That information is then shared with law enforcement, like Det. Truman.
“We’re not always going to be putting handcuffs on people with these cases, because a lot of our suspects are overseas,” Truman said. “But we’re making victims whole in another way, by getting back their money.”
Unfortunately, Owens has not been able to get her money back.
To top it off, she had to cancel two bank accounts and all her credit cards.
Investigators in New Smyrna Beach are still working Owen’s case and told WESH 2 in a statement, “While some law‑enforcement agencies have, in certain cases, been able to trace and seize cryptocurrency, recovery is highly case‑specific and not guaranteed. It depends on several factors, including how quickly the scam is reported, how the funds were transferred, and whether the cryptocurrency can still be accessed or traced. Unfortunately, recovery has not been possible in this investigation at this point. In some cases, larger agencies with specialized cyber or financial‑crimes resources are able to pursue additional tracing options; however, even with those tools, recovery is not always possible.”
Red flags:
- Law enforcement, banks, and government agencies will never ask you to withdraw money or move funds.
- If you feel pressured to act immediately, it’s likely a scam.
- If you get an unexpected call or text, hang up and call back using a trusted number (from a statement, official website, or the back of your card).
