Elderly Wilkes-Barre woman scammed out of $25K in Bitcoin fraud scheme

Wilkes-Barre, PA — A 79-year-old woman lost $25,000 after falling victim to a scam that convinced her to transfer cash to a Bitcoin account controlled by the suspect, according to police.

On Friday at approximately 5:00 p.m., the woman entered City Headquarters on Kidder Street to report the incident. She told officers she had received an alarming message on her computer warning that her bank account had been compromised. The message included a phone number and instructed her to call immediately.

When the victim made the call, she was told by the person on the other end that her account had been accessed by hackers and needed to be protected by transferring funds to a “secure” Bitcoin account. The scammer then provid

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