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GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – The Grand Island Police Department is partnering with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to combat what they call the fastest-growing fraud in America.
According to GIPD, cryptocurrency scams use manipulative tactics to convince victims to deposit money into cryptocurrency investments. The fraud has become more prevalent as cryptocurrency kiosks have become more accessible.
GIPD plans to help prevent this crime by placing warning stickers on ATMs showing the warning signs of fraud. Community Engagement Crime Prevention Officer Sean Cook said part of what makes this scam so dangerous is that there are many ways criminals reach their victims.
“The common ones are the romantic scams, the government scams, the scare tactics, the loved one being kidnapped. Those seem to be our most common ones,” Cook said. “We do have a lot of people that are embarrassed that this happened to them that aren’t even reporting them. We know that there’s a lot out there that aren’t even reporting it.”
Chief Kevin Denney said one of the big demographics the city hopes to protect is older adults.
“Fraud, especially fraud of the elderly, is a growing trend. And we want to be able to put in place some proactive measures that allow us to hopefully prevent a few people from being victims of crime, especially fraud and mostly the elderly we’re talking about here,” Denney said. “And so this allows us to get in front of this issue, hopefully, here in Grand Island, with the store owners’ participation as well, their partnership, to prevent some people, hopefully, from becoming victims of fraud.”
Chief Denney also said there are some ways you can protect yourself and others from cryptocurrency fraud.
“If it sounds strange or you have friends where it sounds strange to you, then you need to intervene and talk about it and even call the police,” Denney said. “We’ll be more than happy to help or investigate this and determine whether it’s a fraud issue or not.”
GIPD and members of AARP will be divided into groups on Friday to add the stickers to the ATMs. Group 1 will visit Lobo Market (224 E. 4th St.) and Group 2 will visit Get ‘N Split (3320 Langenheder St.). Both groups will reconvene at 3rd Street Trees (305 N. Broadwell Ave.) at 11 a.m. before proceeding to the final visit at CVS (1710 W. 2nd St.) at approximately 11:15 a.m.
This is part of a statewide effort to increase awareness of the scam and provide business owners and customers with clear information and resources to prevent fraud.
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