Massage scams targeting Tarrant County elderly; men tricked into paying $300K in ‘fines’
Chances are good that in the next few weeks residents, especially elderly men, may get a phone call from someone who says they are an investigator with the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
The caller will say the resident has committed a crime when he contacted a massage or sex-related website, and he must pay a fine in increments to a bitcoin machine or at a kiosk at a location picked by the caller. If the fine isn’t paid, residents will be prosecuted, the callers say.
It’s a scam.
And so for in Tarrant County, residents have been tricked into paying fake fines of about $300,000.
On Friday, officials at the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office warned residents about these scammers.
“No one from my office will ever contact anyone and tell them to pay fines to bitcoin machines,” Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson said in a Friday news release. “If you are contacted, fight back – report the crime to police. Don’t be the next victim.”
In the scams, the caller tells residents that they have committed a crime involving illegal sexual conduct.
The call appears to come from 817-884-1400, which is the general telephone number for the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
But officials at the district attorney’s office said they never ask people to go to bitcoin machines to pay fines. Any fine ever required by a court will be paid to the court.
A scammer who falsely identified himself by name as an investigator spoofed the call, making it appear he was calling from the criminal district attorney’s office.
Officials noted that this is one of the latest cryptocurrency crimes as scammers want residents to pay by cryptocurrency because there’s almost no way for victims to get their money back.
Prosecutors said if you have been impacted by this came, report it to the police in city where it occurred.
If you believe you might be getting scammed, call the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office at 817-884-1400 and ask for the investigator who called you.
This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 10:38 AM.
