Des Plaines man scammed out of $6,300
A Des Plaines man was scammed out of $6,300 over the weekend, police said Monday.
The fraud occurred Saturday morning. The 62-year-old victim told police he had been texted by someone who said his accounts had been hacked.
He was instructed to withdraw his money and then deposit it into a cryptocurrency account, police said.
He did so using a machine in Lake Bluff and then later realized he’d been defrauded, police said.
People need to be cautious when contacted by strangers over social media, communication apps, text messages or the phone, Des Plaines police have said.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 150,000 complaints about cryptocurrency fraud in 2024, according to a report issued this year.
Cryptocurrency scams resulted in more than $9 billion in losses.