PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WLOX) – A Bitcoin scam has left a Jackson County resident without tens of thousands of dollars, prompting the Pascagoula Police Department to open a full investigation.

The case involves someone impersonating a U.S. Marshal who called threatening arrest, resulting in $46,000 being deposited into a Bitcoin machine at a Texaco on the corner of Jackson Avenue and Market Street. This comes from Lt. Darren Versiga, a longtime investigator with the Pascagoula Police Department.

An agency helping Versiga created an organized timeline showing where the scammed money went. The chart shows how money enters through Bitcoin machines and spreads out like a ‘spiderweb’ to various cryptocurrency wallets.

“When you put that money in, it turns to cryptocurrency which goes to an exchange, and then the exchanges will go out to all these other wallets,” Versiga said. “Most of these are numbers; these are cryptowallets, and there’s money in these crypto wallets that basically is divided up.”

The victim in this case was shown a fake warrant containing critical personal information. Versiga said he has reason to believe multiple people are behind these scams.

“Most of these things are overseas that you can’t ever do anything with, but on this one here. There are local people within the United States that I’ve been told,” he said.

These types of scams are relatively new and bring obstacles for law enforcement on the coast and nationwide, Versiga said.

“We have to educate ourselves; no one really knows how to work these cases, and they’re so complex,” he said. “We’re either gonna be part of the problem, part of the solution, and I’m gonna be darn sure that when these come across my desk. I’m going to be able to point you in some direction.”

Versiga said he is in the process of subpoenaing Bitcoin wallets and has only recovered $1,000 so far.

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