Crypto scams enter the fold as fraud rises in Gillette

GILLETTE — In June, someone claiming to be Lt. James Davis with the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office contacted a Gillette woman, saying there was a warrant for her arrest.

The problem was that no one under that name and title works with the sheriff’s office, and the 62-year-old woman was scammed out of $1750 in Bitcoin the caller instructed her to send.

Almost two weeks before that, this fictitious Lt. Davis called a 76-year-old man in Gillette and told him that he had to pay a $3500 fine — in Bitcoin — for missing jury duty. The man sent the cryptocurrency to an account in Seattle before he r...