They got caught because they used cryptocurrencies
D’Zyre Youngblood, of Atlanta, was charged with theft and organized attempted fraud. Previously, detectives linked her to a scam that robbed a Florida woman of over $79,000.
Investigators described how the criminals operated: The victim received a call from a person impersonating “Captain Eric Dietrich” from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office. The caller lied to the woman that she had an arrest warrant out for her and pressured her to pay thousands of dollars to avoid jail. As absurd as it sounds, the victim withdrew cash from his bank account and deposited it via several ATM transactions into the fraudsters’ wallet. The total was just over $79,000.
When the woman realized that she had been deceived, she reported to the police. Detectives from the sheriff’s office’s Financial Crimes Unit located and traced the blockchain transfers. The funds were eventually transferred to the Coinbase account associated with Youngblood. Some of the funds were converted to US dollars and transferred to a bank account also associated with Youngblood.
Youngblood admitted to having an account on a cryptocurrency exchange and said that friends asked her to transfer money through the account. Therefore, it is not clear whether she consciously took part in the fraud.
A new kind of scam
The case is part of an investigation into people impersonating law enforcement officers and pressuring victims to send them money. Investigators believe some of the scams are still being coordinated by inmates in Georgia prisons. So we would be dealing with a larger network of criminals.
The sheriff’s office said Youngblood is not the only person charged in connection with the case. Authorities also identified additional suspects in related cases, including Christina Rimes and Lakesha Heard.
What is important, however, is that cryptocurrencies allowed us to catch another person associated with criminals. This shows that digital assets do not help law breakers at all.
