BCI Recovers More Than $35,000 in Stolen Bitcoin for Hamilton County Victim

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Hamilton County, Ohio – A special unit within the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation recently returned more than $35,000 to a Cincinnati-area woman who fell victim to a cryptocurrency scam, Attorney General Dave Yost and Delhi Township Police Chief Jeff Braun announced Friday.

“This case illustrates the elaborate traps that crypto criminals use to scam their victims,” Yost said. “Thankfully, because the victim notified authorities quickly, BCI was able to recover most of the stolen money.”

In August 2024, a 73-year-old Delhi Township woman received a pop-up message on her laptop saying the device had been hacked. The woman called a phone number she believed to be a Microsoft hotline and spoke to the scammer, who instructed her to withdraw money and convert it to Bitcoin to fix her computer. In all, the scammer convinced the woman to send $41,750 in multiple transactions via a Bitcoin ATM.

After realizing this was a scam, the woman notified the Delhi Township Police Department, which requested the assistance of BCI’s Electronic Financial Investigations unit. BCI successfully traced the funds and placed a freeze on additional transfers to the scammer.

Through search warrants and a court order, BCI ultimately recovered most of the stolen money, returning $35,600 to the victim this week.