Here's How Western Springs Woman Lost $30K: Cops

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – A Western Springs woman was out $30,000 after a scammer originally contacted her through LinkedIn, Western Springs police said.

The 59-year-old woman lives on Harvey Avenue, police said. Patch obtained the full police report through a public records request.

On Feb. 23, the suspect messaged her through LinkedIn, claiming he worked for Tesla and dealt with cryptocurrency, the report said.

The scammer guided the woman into downloading stock applications.

In two payments in late March, she wired $20,000 and $10,000 to Crypto.com and then transferred the money to BXMEX, according to the report.

On April 24, the suspect tried to get the woman to send another $29,000, but she did not have the money, police said. Her money was expected to increase to $49,774 by this week.

But she was locked out of her BXMEX account on April 30. She went to the police a few days later.

She told police she gave her Social Security and driver's license numbers in order to sign up with BXMEX, which is a scam website.

She was advised to contact the major credit bureaus about her situation.

In an interview May 4, the woman told an officer that the money she sent ended up going to China, London and Colorado. The report did not indicate how she knew that.

She said she researched "crypto scam" lawyers and found one in Florida, police said. That person requested money to look into her case. In response, the officer advised the woman not to send any more money to unknown locations, police said.