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Published: 4/10/2023 6:31:15 PM
Modified: 4/10/2023 6:29:29 PM
LEBANON — A woman residing at a senior living facility had nearly $6,000 in stolen cryptocurrency funds recovered for her thanks in large measure to the victim’s “meticulously kept records” and a software program that traces digital currency transactions, Lebanon police said Monday.
But it still took 10 months to get the money back and the amount that was recovered was less than the initial investment the victim made, police said.
The elderly woman, whom police did not identify, fell prey to an online scheme that led her to invest in a digital currency, only to have her investment transferred into a “wallet” on a foreign crypto exchange that she could not access, according to Lebanon police.
Lebanon police’s Cyber Crimes Unit — utilizing computer software provided by the U.S. Secret Service that traces crypto transactions — was able to locate the Nigerian account in which the digital currency was held and issue a warrant to the exchange for its recovery, Lebanon police chief Phil Roberts said.
The victim, fortunately, kept records of her crypto investment, which provided the information required to trace the stolen money to the foreign exchange where it was deposited, according to Lt. Richard Norris, head of the cyber crimes unit.
Nonetheless, the value of the cryptocurrency recovered was less than the value of the woman’s initial investment given the wide swings in the currency’s value. (The value of Bitcoin, for example, the most popular cryptocurrency, was about $63,000 per coin in April 2022, compared with about $28,000 currently.)
Lebanon police did not disclose which currency the woman invested in or how much she originally paid in.
“She was not made whole,” according to Norris.
Lebanon police said they began investigating the woman’s stolen cryptocurrency when she approached officers following a presentation police made about the dangers of cyber fraud to residents of the senior living facility last June.
Tracing the stolen funds to the foreign exchange required only about “15 to 20 hours” of the investigator’s time, according to Roberts. Much of the 10 months was taken up in documenting the transactions and processing legal warrants to recover the funds.
It’s unlikely the suspect ever will be arraigned on charges in Grafton County Superior Court, Roberts said, given that crypto fraud is rampant overseas and there is little way to hold perpetrators accountable.
“They are out of reach,” Roberts said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
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