Newburyport police stop woman from losing $11,000 to scam

The Newburyport Police Department announced Oct. 21 that an officer intervened in time to stop a woman from depositing $11,000 in cash into a Bitcoin ATM as part of an attempted scam.

The department said Patrolman Nathaniel Kelley was at a gas station on Storey Avenue on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at about 5:30 p.m. when a woman approached him, worried she might be getting scammed. She told Kelley that someone claiming to be a government agent had called her, knew personal information about her, and told her she needed to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM to avoid legal trouble.

Kelley asked to speak with the caller, who hung up as soon as an officer joined the conversation. Police said the woman had driven from Maine looking for a Bitcoin ATM and had withdrawn $11,000 in cash because of the call. Kelley told her the call was likely a scam and advised her to monitor her accounts and report any suspicious activity.

Police described the call as a common scam in which callers pose as law enforcement or government officials and threaten legal consequences unless money is sent immediately, sometimes using claims that a relative is jailed and needs bail. Once cash is deposited into a Bitcoin ATM, it is often impossible to recover unless the machine itself is seized under a search warrant, and police said arrests in these cases are rare.

The department said Police Inspector Dani Sinclair has been working on a proposed city bylaw banning Bitcoin ATMs in Newburyport, and the City Council is scheduled to take a final vote on the measure at its Monday meeting.

"Most people don’t even know what Bitcoin ATMs are for, and we mostly only hear about them when they are used to transmit funds to scammers," Marshal Matthew Simons said in the release. "These machines provide little service to residents, but represent a real threat to public safety by providing a quick and easy way for residents to be separated from their hard-earned money. I thank Inspector Sinclair and Patrolman Kelley for their work these matters."

Source: Town of Newburyport announcement, October 21, 2026.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the original announcement.