Florida’s Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit (CFEU) tracked down and returned $229,096 in stolen cryptocurrency to victims over the past week, according to an announcement by Attorney General James Uthmeier. The clawed-back funds stemmed from a series of elaborate digital traps, including fake investment apps, tech support spoofs, and romance scams.
“Cyber criminals are often targeting our most vulnerable populations, including seniors,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “My Cyber Fraud Enforcement Unit is setting the standard for cryptocurrency fraud recovery nationwide. We continue to partner with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to maximize all available resources, recover stolen funds, and return as much as possible to the victims.”
The single largest recovery came out of Sarasota County, where a 69-year-old man received $139,400 in restitution. The victim originally contacted the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office in October 2025 after a phone scammer posing as a legitimate crypto advisor talked him into sending more than $970,000 to a fraudulent investment app. The app displayed fake metrics showing his balance had ballooned past $3.2 million. When the man tried to withdraw his money, the fraudsters demanded an additional $325,000 upfront to release the cash, prompting him to call the police.
In St. Johns County, a 77-year-old woman was refunded $17,376 following a four-month tech support scam. Beginning in July 2025, scammers impersonating PayPal employees convinced the victim that her bank account was compromised and that her only safe option was to convert her savings into digital currency. She was instructed to make 17 separate transactions totaling $165,000 via physical “Bitcoin machines.” She reported the crime to the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office only after the scammers disconnected their phone line and vanished.
A second St. Johns County case involved a romance scam that began on the dating app “Coffee Meets Bagel” in December 2024. A fraudster claiming to work for Goldman Sachs moved the conversation over to WhatsApp and convinced a female victim to invest an initial $1,000 in a rigged crypto platform. The scammer eventually manipulated her into taking out loans and borrowing money from relatives to feed the account, which showed massive, fabricated profits. When she attempted to cash out, the scammer told her she owed $59,000 in taxes first. The victim, who lost more than $108,000 in total, was reunited with $45,156 by the CFEU.
The final chunk of returned cash went to a 77-year-old Marion County man who lost over $160,000. He connected with a female scammer on Facebook in November 2024 before moving to WhatsApp, where she guided his investments into a dummy crypto site for roughly a year.
Like the other victims, he realized he was conned when the platform demanded extra fees before allowing withdrawals. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office used blockchain tracing to find the money, and the CFEU navigated the legal hurdles required to return $27,162 back to his bank account.
READ: Taiwanese National Arrested In Florida Gold Bar Scam Targeting The Elderly
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