OHIO, USA —

Local authorities are asking the public to be on the lookout for scams this holiday season.

The Perrysburg Township Police Department said it has gotten at least five reports of scams in the past week. 

Scam calls are nothing new, but now a lot of scammers are asking people to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM. Police said once money gets put into one of these, it can be extremely difficult to track it down.

Perrysburg Township police Chief Matt Gazarek said the calls people have been getting lately are convincing. 

“They do a very good job with this stuff,” Gazarek said. “The one thing that’s consistent with them all is that they pretend to be from either the sheriff’s office, a police department or a federal agency.”

Gazarek said the callers will tell people that they have outstanding warrants, but it’ll be taken care of if they pay a certain amount of money.

“Whether it be Bitcoin, cash or gift cards,” Gazarek said. “It’s just not going to happen. Federal agencies don’t work that way.”

Gazarek said the department was able to stop a transaction of $9,000 last week, after a victim had already made one transaction.

“She tried to make a second transaction, at which point the bank had more questions for her, and they were able to tell her to hang up the phone and you’re being scammed,” Gazarek said.

Gazarek said detectives believe they will be able to get the victim’s money back that she used in the first transaction, but that’s not always the case. He said when money gets sent electronically, if a lot time passes, it can be a lot harder for authorities to track it down.

These scams are happening all over Lucas County. The Toledo Police Department is also urging people to be cautious.

TPD public information officer Prince Flores said a lot of the reports the department gets have been being told their bank information was compromised. He said people will be told to move their money, potentially through a crypto-currency ATM.

“With any type of electronic transaction you’re dealing with a different type of thing, especially investigation-wise,” Flores said. “At the same time, we want you to be extremely cautious about what you’re doing.”

Flores said if you get a call and aren’t sure if it’s real, you should listen for red flags like a sense of urgency from the caller and them using only generic information. Police said if you think you’re getting scammed, you should hang up and directly call whatever agency called you.