Jefferson City police warn of scam cryptocurrency calls

The Jefferson City Police Department is seeing an increase calls from scammers directing individuals to deposit funds into cryptocurrency kiosks, according to a news release.

Scammers may claim to be business owners or from a law enforcement or federal agency. They may threaten to arrest, fine or deport individuals who receive these calls if they do not pay for supposed debt right away. The goal is to simply scare citizens into paying, the Jefferson City Police Department says. 

Scammers can make any name or number appear on caller ID, which is called spoofing. Even if it looks like a government agency is calling or the call is from a local number, it could still be a scammer calling from any location.

Real law enforcement and federal agencies will not call individuals to threaten them with arrest or payment over the phone to direct someone to deposit funds into an ATM or Bitcoin exchange machine, the police department said.