The court of a county in West Virginia has warned of a new fraudulent scheme targeting citizens through fake arrest warrants, in which cryptocurrency scammers are using forged documents falsely claiming to be issued by the U.S. District Court, with the aim of extorting money from victims, alleging that they missed their jury duties.
According to an official notice issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, the scammers impersonate judicial officials, using documents that "look official" and falsely claim to be issued by the Eastern District of Virginia. The scam focuses on informing victims that they are wanted for justice due to their absence from jury duties, and that they must pay immediate amounts to avoid arrest.
The Scam Method and Exploitation of Cryptocurrency The scam usually starts with a phone call from someone impersonating a judicial official, where the victim is asked to pay the amount via bitcoin or other hard-to-trace payment methods, such as gift cards. If the victim refuses to pay, they are threatened with immediate arrest.
Court officials confirmed that U.S. District Courts do not issue arrest warrants for such reasons unless there is an official summons, urging citizens to directly contact the court to verify the authenticity of any documents they receive, especially if they include a request for payment in cryptocurrency.
Rise in Fraud Cases in the Cryptocurrency Sector This warning comes amid a growing number of scams exploiting the cryptocurrency sector, with scammers impersonating government officials or prominent figures in the financial field to defraud investors and users. Recent reports indicate that the cryptocurrency sector lost more than $3 billion due to scams and hacks in 2024 alone, according to data from PeckShield released last January.
Intensive Efforts to Combat Fraud In late 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led a security campaign to uncover a fraudulent scheme targeting residents of El Paso, Texas, through fake emails claiming to be sent from the federal office itself. The bureau also issued another warning about scammers on Telegram, impersonating venture capital investors to deceive users and install malware on their devices.
Recently, law enforcement agencies in several U.S. states warned about other scams, where scammers impersonate representatives of the cryptocurrency trading platform "Binance" to target platform users and steal their money.
