The Houston Police Department (HPD) is searching for two men involved in the alleged robbery of a woman at a cryptocurrency kiosk. Surveillance footage from a convenience store on Fannin near Gray in Midtown has been released.
The victim, who had been contacted days earlier by a third party claiming her bank was hacked, was instructed to move her money to a crypto account to protect it. Following the advice of the scammers, she made several withdrawals and was coached on how to communicate with bank tellers to avoid suspicion.
Jeff Brieden from HPD’s robbery division explained, “She was doing it for the purpose of repairing her house, which had been damaged in the hurricane, which it wasn’t. But she is doing this for the purpose of the possibility that the tellers could be involved in hacking their bank.”
On July 12, while trying to deposit $19,000, the victim was robbed by the men who saw her with the envelope and took it. Investigators currently do not believe these suspects are linked to the initial scammers. Anyone with information about their identity is urged to contact the police.
