I wonder if you could tell me the story of Benjamin Perkin.

So Benjamin Perkin is a 39-year-old executive in Canada.

That's reporter Pranchu Verba who covers tech and innovation for the Washington Post.

And this story that Pranchu's telling starts early one morning in January.

Then Perkin's parents get a call on their landline around 7 a.m. in the morning.

And the call is pretty serious.

It's a lawyer allegedly saying that their son Ben has killed a U.S. diplomat in a car accident

and that Perkin is in jail and he needs money for legal fees.

The lawyer then goes and puts Ben Perkin the son on the phone and Ben says,

hey, mom and dad, I love you, I appreciate you.

I need this money.

And a few hours later, another call comes back and this time it's the lawyer.

And he says, we need $21,000 Canadian dollars.

And we need it today because Ben needs this money to get out of jail.

And they put Ben on the phone again and Ben in a distressed state assures their parents

that yes, I need the money.

Ben Perkin's parents are terrified.

They do have a brief moment of wondering if this could possibly be a scam.

But they remember in that moment feeling like this sounded just like their son.

Ben's parents were able to quickly get $21,000 Canadian dollars.

That's about $15,000 US dollars from a bank.

And they go to a Bitcoin terminal as instructed.

...