The Lebanon Police Department has been successful in tracking down a customer’s crypto funds that ultimately fell into the hands of a scammer.
Lebanon Police Know What They’re Doing
Richard Norris – supervisor of the Cyber Crimes Unit at the Lebanon Department – explained in an interview:
Our unit handles everything from forensic extractions of mobile devices and computers. We’re a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, where we investigate people who try and use the internet to sexually exploit children, and we investigate almost every kind of electronic crime for the Lebanon Police Department.
The cyber crime division of the Lebanon police authority is widely considered one of the best in the country as the agents have access to software that is rare or unavailable in many instances. Chief Phillip Roberts of the Lebanon Police Department said in a statement:
It’s all in an effort to combat the ever-changing times of the internet and computer crimes that we’re seeing.
Not long ago, the police gave a big presentation at a local nursing home warning the individuals living there that they were the most vulnerable to fraud. Roberts said:
At the conclusion of the presentation, they had a chance to speak with a resident there that ultimately reported that she fell victim to a fraud.
Describing how the police were able to find the stolen crypto units in the case, Roberts mentioned:
They were able to execute the legal process to freeze that wallet and then subsequently forfeit the contents of the wallet to the Lebanon police’s government crypto account.
In all, more than $5,000 in crypto was returned to the victim. Norris expressed his enthusiasm regarding the results of the department’s involvement, saying:
I’m very proud of the Cyber Crimes Unit. As their supervisor, people who work in this unit are incredibly dedicated, and the citizens in Lebanon should be proud that they have a unit like the LPD Cyber Crimes Unit. There are very few in existence that can do what we do.
The department is continuing to perform outreach to let people know how they can avoid becoming victims of crypto scams. A big tactic is avoiding answering calls you don’t recognize or speaking to people that aren’t familiar to you. If any of them request payments, the time has come to hang up.
Time to Take Action!
In addition, if people feel they’ve been the victims of crypto scams, they should call their local district attorneys and tell them what happened.
Among the most common crypto scams today are romance scams, in which people allegedly looking for love online narrow in on victims and get them to invest in criminal-controlled crypto platforms that ultimately bar them from making withdrawals or taking advantage of their (albeit false) gains.
