A phone call that started while the victim was sitting at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday ended with $32,500 gone, funneled through a Bitcoin kiosk at a local gas station after a caller claiming to be an Allegheny County sheriff’s deputy said a warrant had been issued for their arrest. The caller told the victim they had failed to appear in court and now faced charges for failure to appear and contempt of court, each carrying a $25,000 bond, for a total of $50,000 in purported fines.
According to WPXI, the scammer claimed the victim had signed paperwork the previous month agreeing to appear as a federal court witness, then said any discussion of the warrant would trigger additional charges — effectively imposing a fake gag order to keep the victim silent and compliant. The caller ordered the victim to stay on the phone continuously and later handed the call off to a second scammer impersonating Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin Kraus, who demanded an additional $7,500 after claiming the first payment had not been authorized.
The victim ultimately withdrew $25,000 in cash from a bank, deposited it into a Bitcoin kiosk after scanning a QR code the scammer had sent, then withdrew another $7,500 and scanned a second QR code to complete the demanded payment. The scammer offered to settle the fabricated cases for half the total bond and promised the victim could get the money back after completing a signature verification at the sheriff’s office, along with a follow-up call the next day and a phone number for hourly text check-ins.
Scam Unraveled at the Real Sheriff’s Office
The fraud only came to light when the victim showed up at the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office for that promised signature authorization. Staff there informed the victim that no such warrant or verification process existed, per the same WPXI report. The sheriff’s office says the investigation remains ongoing…