An Atlanta woman, who aided a Georgia prison gang known for impersonating police officers with phone and Bitcoin scams, stole more than $79,000 from a Deltona resident, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.
D’Zyre Youngblood, 28, was brought to the Volusia County Branch Jail on Tuesday, March, 3, court records show. She later bonded out, posting $20,000 in bail.
In a body camera recording released by the Sheriff’s Office, Youngblood appeared to wipe away tears as Sheriff Mike Chitwood and deputies met her on her way to jail. Also there to meet her was Sheriff’s Office Capt. Eric Dietrich, who Youngblood and the gang impersonated in order to steal from the Deltona woman with threats of fake arrest warrants, according to court documents.
Scam victim told to use Bitcoin machine at DeLand gas station to send scammer almost $10K
Investigating sheriff’s deputies said the victim reported the scam on Feb. 4.
The woman said she received a telephone call on Feb. 2 from someone claiming to be Capt. Dietrich, and was told she had two active arrest warrants for not showing up in court as a character witness in a juvenile sex offender case, court records show.
The scammer told the victim there were two ways to resolve her case: turn herself in at the sheriff’s office or choose a civil route where she could pay the bail on the two arrest warrants that totaled $9,000. The scammer told the victim she also had pay $820 in court processing fees, an arrest report filed with the court shows.
The victim withdrew the money from her bank on Feb. 3 and the scammer directed her to a Bitcoin ATM machine at a Circle K at 1591 S. Woodland Blvd. in DeLand, where she sent $9,820 to the scammer, sheriff’s investigators said.
The scammer then had the victim withdraw $20,000 from a credit union and directed her to a second Circle K at 819 Deltona Blvd. in Deltona. At that bitcoin machine, the victim sent the scammer $9,480 in one transaction and $9,880 in a second transaction, investigators said.
The Deltona victim said she made the additional transactions because the scammer, posing as Capt. Dietrich, told her the initial payments did not go through, the arrest report states.
While on the phone, a second scammer joined the conversation and told the victim that the two additional amounts sent from the Deltona Bitcoin machine also did not go through, the report said.
On Feb. 5, the scammer called again and told the victim that a judge had given her another opportunity to pay, so she was directed to get more money. The victim ended up sending $50,000 from the Deltona gas station’s Bitcoin machine, sheriff’s investigators said.
Deltona theft linked to Atlanta woman, prison gang
An investigator with the sheriff’s office Financial Crimes Unit obtained receipts of the Bitcoin ATM transactions and determined that the Deltona woman had been swindled out of $79,180, the arrest report shows.
The investigator traced the transactions to several Bitcoin accounts, and one tied to a credit union belonged to Youngblood tied, court records state.
Youngblood then called the Volusia sheriff’s investigator after finding that her credit union account had been frozen, and the investigator told her it was because of the theft, court records indicate.
In a follow-up phone call, Youngblood told the investigator she had a Coinbase account that she used. When asked why there were multiple transactions on the account, Youngblood did not answer, the report states.
Scammer asked about relationship with Georgia inmate
He then asked Youngblood what her relationship was with an inmate in the Georgia Department of Corrections. Youngblood said her boyfriend was imprisoned there and that his friends, known as the “Homeboys,” used her Coinbase account to send and transfer money, the investigator noted in his report.
The Volusia Sheriff’s Office Financial Crimes Unit continues to investigate large-scale electronic crimes and money laundering operations done through Georgia prisons by a group known as the “Georgia Prison Gang,” the court record detailed.
Members of the gang impersonate law enforcement officers to scam victims, the sheriff investigator wrote in the arrest report.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Woman, prison gang accused of scamming Deltona woman out of $79K
Reporting by Patricio G. Balona, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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