Bonus: Top 5 Things to Know About Crypto Scams

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Thieves think that stolen cryptocurrency is the perfect crime — anonymous, secret and safe from seizure. But prosecutor Erin West and her team are proving them wrong, recovering millions of dollars in stolen cryptocurrency and returning it back to victims. West is a six-year veteran of REACT (Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team), a cross-agency task force addressing the escalating problem of high technology crime. In this special episode, Bob talks with Erin about the top five things everyone should know about cryptocurrency scams, including whether money lost to scams is recoverable and if scams are traceable. Erin will discuss steps that can be taken if you’ve experienced a crypto scam, as well as the impact law enforcement can have when agencies have the right tools, knowledge and collaboration.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on the Perfect Scan.
0:03.0	He said, I've been in a car accident and I'm getting arrested. I've been drinking and I hit a woman who is pregnant and her child is in the car also. So dad I need you to call this lawyer and he gave the
0:16.2	dad the phone number. So the dad freaking out then talks to the lawyer. The
0:21.4	lawyer says oh yeah this is going to be troublesome for your son.
0:24.2	He's definitely going into custody.
0:26.0	But if you want to get him out, the fastest way to do it
0:28.8	is by sending cryptocurrency.
0:37.0	Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host Bob Sullivan.
0:39.0	Cryptocurrency.
0:41.0	It sometimes feels like everyone's talking about it, maybe everyone's using it.
0:47.0	Well, that's very wrong.
0:49.0	In truth, the vast majority of Americans say they've never used crypto, not even once.
0:55.0	But why are we talking about it a lot?
0:58.0	In part because criminals have flocked to crypto.
1:02.0	It seems to be the perfect tool for stealing money over the
1:05.4	internet. If you heard last week's episode you know that reported
1:09.7	crypto theft has quadrupled in the New England area, according to the FBI, and nationwide
1:15.8	$3.3 billion was reported stolen in 2022, more than double the previous year.
1:23.0	And that's why we're devoting today's entire episode to Crime and crypto.
1:28.0	And we have the perfect guest to discuss that, Aaron West, a Silicon Valley prosecutor and head of something called the
1:35.2	crypto coalition. By the end of today's episode I hope there's five important things
1:40.6	we all understand about cryptocurrency. Here's our conversation.
	...

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