Adelaide woman tricked to feed $100 notes into cryptocurrency ATM – and is saved by hero cop

When cybercrime police officer David Mitchell spotted an elderly woman feeding $100 notes into a bitcoin ATM, he immediately knew something was seriously wrong.

An Adelaide woman has fallen victim to an elaborate scam, believing she lost $17,000 and the only way to return the money was to feed that same amount into a cryptocurrency ATM.

Fortunately for her, she was saved by an off-duty police officer.

The 84-year-old woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Advertiser the incident occurred at the end of June, she was on her computer when “an absolutely blaring, loud sound with flashing red lights” appeared on her screen, saying she’s been hacked.

The pop-up instructed her to call the Apple support number that was provided on the screen.

The woman said the Apple support line “sounded legitimate” as the worker immediately offered her name, ID number and went through the “information very systematically”.

Sergeant David Mitchell, from SAPOL’s Financial and Cybercrime Investigation Branch intervened to save a distressed woman from losing thousands of dollars in a scam. Picture: Russell Millard

“She (the scammer) mentioned the ‘Trojan virus’ and went through my name, birthdate and even knew what bank I am with,” the victim said.

“She explained, looking at my account that I had been scammed and assured me she was putting me through to a secure line to my bank.

“Here I was told I had spent $17,000 on bitcoin.”

The woman said she was “feeling distraught” after learning she lost so much money.

“I asked if it could be reversed and was told, to recover the money, I needed to feed the same amount in cash back into a crypto ATM,” she said.

That’s when things took a dark turn for the woman.

“I was given a deadline of 2pm to withdraw and transfer the money but somewhere along the line the scammer said, ‘you’re not to tell anyone’,” the victim said.

“I quickly walked to my bank to withdraw money but could only take out $5000.

“I feel bad about not being truthful to the teller who asked me why I was taking out the large amount of money. I said it was for my daughter.”

Meanwhile, the scammer stayed on the phone with the victim for four hours.

The victim was being put under pressure, as well as instructed to transfer the money on a crypto ATM.

The woman started feeding cash into the ATM when Sergeant David Mitchell from SAPOL’s Financial and Cybercrime Investigation Branch intervened and physically stopped the woman from putting $100 notes into the machine.

Sgt Mitchell said he “felt absolutely devastated” when he saw the distressed woman.

“I had this immediate adrenaline rush to try and stop that victim from inserting more money into that crypto ATM,” he said.

“I immediately went inside, announced myself as a police officer and I tried to convince the victim to stop inserting money into the ATM but at that point the lady was very tired, she appeared like she was just totally out of it and just continued to insert the money.

“I actually physically grabbed the money from the victim and took the phone from her in order to stop her from losing more.”

Despite Sgt Mitchell’s best efforts, the victim still lost $1100.

“Unfortunately, the money was never recovered,” Sgt Mitchell said.

“From (there) I called for backup and got one of our cybercrime investigators to attend.

“They checked the victim’s phone and saw that remote access software had been installed and it was immediately deleted because that would give the scammers access to her information.”

Although the victim felt “humiliated” over the scam, she isn’t alone.

According to SAPOL’s Cyber Issue Reporting System, between July 2023 and June 2024, more than $2m has been lost in scam schemes and most of the victims are people aged between 60-80 years.

Originally published as Adelaide woman tricked to feed $100 notes into cryptocurrency ATM – and is saved by hero cop