The FBI reported that Americans lost more than $2.5 billion in cryptocurrency in 2022. Ohioans lost more than $30 million during the same time.
19 Investigates discovered one of the most recent victims was an elderly man in Holmes County who lost more than $1 million.
The FBI would not comment on this specific case, but 19 Investigates obtained court documents where we learned the victim was a 68-year-old Holmes County man and he came to the Lowe’s parking lot in Mount Vernon, Ohio to pay what he thought was a courier who was investing his cash in crypto.
He lost a total of $1.3 million. According to court documents, criminals convinced the man to use an app that looked almost the same as the real thing.
Charles Johnston is the Assistant Special Agent in charge with the Cleveland FBI. He said phony apps and websites are very common in these kinds of scams.
“They’ll direct you to an app or a website that may look like genuine,” Johnston said. “In fact, you know, the website will show transactions for previous performance for their cryptocurrency. If you look up individual names that they give you, you’re not going to find that research that’s available for a normal investment broker.”
It all started in August when the man got a message on Facebook. He said someone named Caitronia Lee messaged him about hunting. The man told the mystery woman he wanted to hunt wild animals in Africa. Lee claimed she had the perfect investment opportunity to make his dream a reality.
“I think the best way to protect yourself is the age-old saying if it sounds too good to be true it is.”
The victim downloaded an app. One scammer pretending to be the service director told the victim to drop off cash to a courier in the parking lot of Lowes in Mount Vernon.
The scammer said the courier would put the money into a crypto account. Johnston said these kinds of scams are common in Northeast Ohio.
“Unfortunately, it is, we see it more than several weekly.”
The victim met a courier five times from September to December, handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
He watched his investment skyrocket to more than $15 million, but then he couldn’t withdraw it.
“Eventually you will not be able to access your money,” Johnston explained. “You might be able to the first time or the second time you want to withdraw, but eventually your access to your own funds is going to stop.”
The scammers started giving him excuses, and that’s when he finally realized, it was all a hoax.
He reported the crime to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office in December.
Johnston said some victims do get their money back.
“It’s all about the timing,” said Johnston. “We’ve been able to do some pretty impressive things when we have the information early on. We have some very talented people in this office that are specialists at retrieving cryptocurrency.”
Then the FBI took the lead, setting up a sting at Lowe’s. Agents gave the victim $1.5 million in phony cash.
According to court documents, Lin Kai was caught red-handed as he drove up and grabbed the bag of cash from the victim. Federal agents took the New York man into custody for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Kai told agents he didn’t know who he worked for, and he made $2,000 every time he made a pickup.
If you believe you may have been the victim of a cryptocurrency scam, report it to your local police department and the FBI online at the FBI’s internet complaint center – ic3.gov.