Albemarle County officials warn of steep rise in cryptocurrency scams targeting older residents
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Summary
Local and federal law-enforcement speakers told a public briefing that cryptocurrency-enabled scams have surged in Albemarle County and across Virginia, with elderly residents frequently targeted and rapid reporting to IC3 urged to improve chances of recovery.
Albemarle County law-enforcement officials and an FBI representative on Tuesday warned of a sharp rise in cryptocurrency-enabled fraud that has cost local residents and highlighted steps victims should take to improve the chances of recovery.
A county representative said the locality has seen about a 175% increase in scam and fraud calls compared with the previous year and estimated nearly $250,000 in reported losses over the past 12 months. “This time last year, we’ve seen approximately a 175% increase in scam and fraud calls that are being reported to us,” the speaker said.
The briefing described a pattern in which perpetrators use urgent-sounding phone calls that impersonate law enforcement, bank staff or a family member to pressure victims—often older adults—into converting cash into cryptocurrency at a nearby Bitcoin ATM. The county presenter said victims are commonly instructed to scan a QR code that contains a crypto wallet address and then feed cash into the machine, which converts it and sends the funds immediately to the fraudster.
A separate law-enforcement speaker placed the local trend in a wider context, saying reported cryptocurrency losses across the Commonwealth rose from about $158 million in 2024 to more than $350 million in 2025. The speaker added that many scams are organized through international call centers and described a variety of schemes, including so-called “pig butchering” investment scams and romance or impersonation frauds.
“We fortunately just we do have the software to chase it to trace it on the blockchain,” a speaker said, noting that some jurisdictions lack those tracing tools. Officials described a limited number of successful recoveries and several cases in which they traced funds to help other jurisdictions’ investigations, but they emphasized that speed matters: the presenters said reporting within roughly 48 hours substantially improves the chances of recovery because funds move quickly on the blockchain.
An FBI representative gave national figures and guidance: citing 2023–24 trends, the representative said total national cryptocurrency-related losses reached roughly $9.3 billion, with people over 60 accounting for about $2.8 billion of that loss based on approximately 149,000 complaints. “There is no legitimate business, government agency, or bank, or financial institution that is going to demand our US citizens to pay or send money through cryptocurrency,” the FBI representative said, urging anyone who may be a victim to pause, step away from their device and report the incident.
Officials directed residents to file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and asked people to provide as many details as possible—names, phone numbers, crypto wallet addresses and email headers—to aid analysis and potential recovery.
The briefing closed with an emphasis on education and rapid reporting as the primary defenses against these scams; no formal policy action or vote was taken.
