This spring, a local Parkland resident found herself in front of a Coinhub ATM ready to follow the instructions of a Captain Brian Smith, badge #1074, to deposit funds to resolve an alleged court order. Just before she deposited the cash, which she had to take a cash advance for, her husband, with the help of local police, got a hold of her and advised that it was a scam.
This is an ordeal that is all too common these days, and luckily this scam didn’t succeed, due to the help of family and police.
The scam started with a call on April 23, 2026, to our victim by a person going by the name of Brian Smith, who claimed to be a captain of the local sheriff’s department. He even provided a badge number, 1074, to sound official.
After confirming some personal details, the fake sheriff captain claimed our victim failed to appear for a court date, and that two warrants had been issued. The scammer explained that, due to its legal sensitivity, the victim shouldn’t discuss the issue with anyone until it was cleared up, and he could help with that.
This is where our fake captain started the next phase of the scam. He asked our victim to provide a bond of $3,250. Then to keep the pressure on and to monitor her, he asked her to update him on her mileage and estimated time of arrival, supposedly to help with the reimbursement of mileage and gas. He directed her to a Coral Springs Coinhub ATM.
Coinhub ATMs are legitimate and follow existing regulations. Due to the nature of bitcoins, which the ATMs use, this is also employed by scammers to trick people into depositing and transferring money to pay scammers.
Our fake sheriff captain guided our victim through setting up an account and demanded that she send the bond payment to a digital wallet. Sensing success, the scammer then requested more funds, which he said was due to another violation for contempt from a U.S. district judge.
Luckily for our victim, she did tell her family, and while this was happening, her husband and daughter were warning her that it sounded like a scam. Like most of us, brought up trusting law enforcement, our victim continued to the ATM that the scammer requested her to go to. Luckily her husband got the police involved, and finally, with real police reassuring that it was a scam, our victim broke off contact.
Even after the scam was uncovered, the fake sheriff captain continued to try to call an additional 10 times, to resurrect the same ploy. At that point, our victim was already in touch with both the Fort Lauderdale and Broward sheriff’s departments and the Parkland police to file reports. After she contacted her bank, froze her credit report, and made a report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the scammer gave up.
According to the FTC, $3.5 billion was lost to scammers in 2025, a 3-times increase since just 2020. Victims are lured via text, phone, email, social media, and even search engine results. Some of the costliest scams involve criminals impersonating officials, including bank authorities.
As opposed to our victim’s story, where scammers tried to convince her that her personal freedom was at stake, fake bank scams try to convince victims that their bank accounts are compromised. Once the victim is successfully convinced, the criminals will try to move all available funds to their control.
The FTC has brought legal action against various imposter scheme companies, but so far, it’s only obtained $70 million in redress for consumers.
“The government will never demand money, make threats, tell you to transfer money or withdraw cash,” according to our federal government. “If you’ve been targeted by a scam like this, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.”
For more information:
- pfs2.acl.gov/strapib/Lies_Govt_Imposters_Tell_Infographic_508_ef756beebb.pdf
- pfs2.acl.gov/strapib/Imposter_Scams_Infographic_508_48f1d37cd7.pdf