Lux Vending – doing business as Bitcoin Depot – reportedly filed a lawsuit against the McLennan County, Texas Sheriff’s Office accusing it of illegally seizing $15,000 from an automated banking machine (ATM) of the BTC.
Authorities confiscated the amount to compensate an elderly victim who had been the victim of a cryptocurrency scam.
Bitcoin Depot “can go to hell”
According to the locals blanket, the whole drama started in late April when an 82-year-old Crawford woman was browsing the internet for a cooking recipe. While online, she received an email stating that she had accidentally activated a “Ransomware” computer virus.
The woman contacted “customer service”, where she was redirected to a specially appointed “fraud investigator”. The latter claimed that all of her personal data had been compromised, adding that someone had written a check for $15,000 to a mysterious construction company using her details. The attacker advised the victim to make a cash withdrawal of $15,000 from his bank and deposit the money in a bitcoin ATM in Waco, Texas.
“The woman said she followed instructions and the guy stayed on the phone with her the whole time. The woman said she deposited $15,000, $100 at a time,” the affidavit reads.
Shortly after, she reported the fraud to the sheriff’s office, who issued a search warrant for Bitcoin Depot, seized the funds, and returned them to the woman.
“The $15,000 she put in the machine was still in the wallet she put it in. So we collected that $15,000 and brought it back to the office. We photographed it, put it into evidence and finally returned it to the victim so that they are no longer traumatized by these monsters,” said Sheriff Parnell McNamara.
He described the company as “a bunch of vultures” who wanted to take money that rightfully belonged to the elderly person. The sheriff went even further saying that Bitcoin Depot “can go to hell”.
For its part, the company team maintained that the sheriff’s office had the right to confiscate the funds but not to return them to the woman. The lawsuit also states that Bitcoin Depot was not the scammer, meaning they did not trick the victim into depositing the money.
A hearing has not yet been set. Bitcoin Depot’s attorney – MacVane – said the entity “is committed to cooperating in any way possible” to help investigators in the case. According to the sheriff, the fraudsters are in another country.
The Missouri citizen who shot a BTC ATM
The aforementioned case of the elderly Texas resident is not the only baffling one involving a Bitcoin ATM. Missouri citizen Matthew Klinger recently received five years of supervised probation after firing five rounds from such a machine.
His reason behind the act is unclear, however, he said he destroyed the device “so he couldn’t take money from someone else”.
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