TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise in Pima County.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department said con artists from other countries are using Bitcoin ATMs to carry out their scheme and are targeting the elderly.

“We’re seeing these government impersonation scams essentially daily at this point,” said PCSD Financial Crimes Detective Michael Wilson.

Wilson said the fraud unit is seeing an increase in international scammers calling the elderly and pretending to be PCSD.

“They will say ‘Hey you unfortunately didn’t show up for jury duty and as a result, you have a warrant for your arrest. The best way to prevent you from going to jail is to just pay the bond in advance,‘” Wilson said. “They will give some reasoning for why they need you to pay this in cryptocurrency.”

The scammer on the other line will then coerce the victim into making large cash withdrawals and depositing the funds into a Bitcoin ATM which are often found inside convenience stores. These machines convert the cash into cryptocurrency.

“Once it’s in there the money moves from account, to account, to account, in extremely rapid speed and as a result it becomes very difficult to locate after that,” Wilson said.

He said these scammers purposely target the elderly.

“They have a steady income and unfortunately they are a little more trusting,” he said.

Victims have lost thousands of dollars — in a single visit.

Because these scammers are depositing the funds in accounts in other countries Wilson said getting the money back can be difficult. He said they try their best to recover the stolen money before it reaches these overseas entities, but that’s not always possible.

“We’ve had a lot of success, we continue to make progress in these types of scams, but as the technology grows it’s becoming increasingly difficult,” he said.

The PCSD has put warning signs on some of these Bitcoin ATMs to try to warn people before they make a mistake.

“Having these alerts right in a place they can see right where they’re making those deposits can sometimes be the difference between them losing money and them safeguarding themselves and just hanging up the call,” Wilson said.

These scams are always evolving. If you get a suspicious phone call or text, call 9-1-1 or contact the PCSD’s fraud unit at (520) 351-3000 or at fraud@sheriff.pima.gov.

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