A police officer in Waltham, Massachusetts is being called a hero after he managed to thwart an apparent Bitcoin scam.

On Thursday, Officer Dan Collins was off-duty and headed to an assignment when he stopped at a gas station. While there, police said he noticed an "elderly" man carrying $12,000 in cash to a Bitcoin machine while talking on the phone.

Police said Collins recognized what was going on and quickly intervened, identifying himself as a police officer. The caller talking to the man was pretending to be from "Apple Customer Support" and the "FTC" and was telling the man to deposit the $12,000 into the Bitcoin machine to "fix a computer virus."

Collins managed to stop the transaction and called the police to assist in the investigation.

Waltham Police are reminding people that

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