{"id":1490391,"date":"2026-03-23T11:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1490391"},"modified":"2026-03-24T21:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:44:52","slug":"officials-say-this-needs-your-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1490391","title":{"rendered":"Scam Alert: Bitcoin scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/01\/sheriff-smithcounty-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1195452\" \/>SMITH COUNTY \u2013 The Smith County Sheriffs Office has issued a Scam Alert.  The White Collar Crime Division of the Smith Couty Sheriff\u2019s Office is actively monitoring and documenting impersonation and Bitcoin scams targeting families of jailed inmates.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The pattern used centers on fraudulent claims of bond?related ankle monitor fees, directed payments through Bitcoin ATMs, and the misuse of Smith County law enforcement identities, Smith County Sheriff\u2019s Officials reported on Monday. Victims receive unsolicited phone calls and\/or text messages from individuals claiming to be with Smith County Pretrial Services, the Smith County Jail, or a lieutenant or deputy with the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Callers often  have some specific information about a relative currently in custody, which lends credibility to the scam. The suspects ask if the victim uses Cash App, Venmo, or similar services, then directs them to a convenience store or gas station with a Bitcoin ATM. Once these funds are deposited into Bitcoin machines, they are quickly moved through multiple private wallets making it difficult to recover any of the victim\u2019s funds.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Smith County Sheriff\u2019s Office, nor any official law enforcement agency, will NEVER call people asking for payment over the phone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SMITH COUNTY \u2013 The Smith County Sheriffs Office has issued a Scam Alert. The White Collar Crime Division of the Smith Couty Sheriff\u2019s Office is actively monitoring and documenting impersonation and Bitcoin scams targeting families of jailed inmates.\u00a0 The pattern used centers on fraudulent claims of bond?related ankle monitor fees, directed payments through Bitcoin ATMs, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1490391\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Scam Alert: Bitcoin scam<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1490798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/01\/sheriff-smithcounty-150x150.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1490391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 02:12:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/01\/sheriff-smithcounty-150x150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1490391"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1490808,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1490391\/revisions\/1490808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1490798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1490391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1490391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1490391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}