Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly presented checks to two local victims of cryptocurrency scams last week.
The sheriff’s office said this marks the first successful recovery and return of such funds by the county’s Cyber Crimes Unit.
The funds were traced, seized, and returned as part of two separate investigations, which lasted approximately six and seven months.
“Cryptocurrency scams are becoming very popular by criminals, and it is notoriously difficult to get that money back,” said Staly.
In December 2024, a victim reported being defrauded by an unknown suspect who persuaded her to transfer money from a Bitcoin account via CashApp. Detectives tracked $612.71 of the funds to a Coinbase wallet and seized them in April.
In January, another victim was scammed by an email claiming to be from PayPal, which led her to transfer $4,000 in Bitcoin through a kiosk.
The funds were traced to an LBank Exchange wallet associated with an individual from India and seized in May.
A local judge authorized the release of the seized funds back to the victims, with the first victim receiving $612.71 and the second $4,000.
Staly emphasized the importance of the Cyber Crimes Unit and the sophisticated financial software used to achieve success.
The investigations are ongoing, and no suspects have been arrested in either case.
Staly urged residents to educate themselves on cryptocurrency scams and to be cautious about sharing personal information or sending money to unknown parties.
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