A resident of Keystone, Colorado fell victim to a sophisticated cryptocurrency scam last week, losing more than $6,000 in Bitcoin after fraudsters posed as law enforcement officials and threatened arrest for failing to serve jury duty, according to Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the documentation reviewed by decryptsan additional $4,000 transfer was in the works, though deputies were able to intervene before it went through.

Despite this, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office revealed that the perpetrators had already obtained sensitive personal information during the call.

“A deputy will never call someone to notify them of an arrest warrant and then offer to release them in exchange for gift cards, wire transfers or Bitcoin,” the office said in incident report.

Call lOGS from the report indicates that similar incidents continue to occur across the state, with a separate incident in Denver describing how a woman lost nearly $5,000 in Bitcoin after scammers impersonating Denver police officers convinced o that he missed jury duty.

The victim, thinking he must have overlooked a jury notice, followed the perpetrator’s instructions to remove a fake warrant by sending payment through a Bitcoin ATM.

After contacting Denver police to confirm the transaction, she discovered she had been defrauded. Although her bank was notified of the fraud, the patrol report claims that “the money is not likely to be recovered.”

The case mirrors an incident in September in which Keystone Bank staff prevented another resident from transferring $8,000 in crypto after receiving similar fraudulent calls. Scammers have increasingly adopted number spoofing techniques to make calls appear to be from legitimate law enforcement agencies.

of Colorado the cryptographic fraud landscape has expanded significantly, with state investigators documenting more than 1,300 cases totaling $81 million in losses during 2023. The state ranks 15th nationally for crypto-related crimes, according to to the law enforcement dates.

The Denver FBI also issued a warning earlier this year in connection with token swindling scams, including high-profile cases where approximately $3.2 million in crypto was embezzled by a pastor and his wife, targeting victims through their Christian community by paying a token called INDXcoin.

“These scammers can be aggressive and persuasive,” the Sheriff’s Office warned, noting that crypto transactions are particularly attractive to fraudsters due to their irreversible nature and the difficulty of tracking funds once transferred.