Crypto theft scams Provo victim out of $70,000, police say

PROVO — Police are working to help a person they say was scammed out of $70,000 worth of cryptocurrency.

The Provo Police Department got a search warrant for search and seizure of electronic information relating to the incident. Police records said that the victim thought they were getting customer service help, when their $70,000 account was drained without notice.

The documents said it all started when the person reached out to Aerodrome Finance for help with their crypto account.

“The victim attempted to contact Aerodrome support through the messaging platform Discord,” documents said. “While on Discord, the victim was contacted directly by a user that appeared to be a member of Aerodrome support.”

It turned out that the person was impersonating support. They sent a link, which the victim followed, and then they entered their Coinbase wallet login information. The fake support agent then siphoned the 70-grand from their account.

Luckily, a detective was able to trace some of the funds in the transaction, the documents said. Police said they located $59,736 that had been transferred to an account named MEXC Global LTD. Police have requested that the account send the funds to the police department so that they can give them back to the victim.

District Court Judge Sean Petersen of Utah County signed a warrant for the search of the business MEXC Global LTD for any evidence of illegally obtained property and evidence of illegal conduct.