The family of a 63-year-old woman who disappeared in Las Vegas earlier this month while visiting a friend says someone posing as the woman has been calling and texting from her phone, demanding payment in Bitcoin.
Alisa Goods, of Brooklyn, New York, vanished on Aug. 8, her family told “NBC Nightly News.”
Goods’ niece, Alana Calloway, said her aunt left her friend’s house to go to a CVS Pharmacy and never returned.
Days later, the family began receiving strange text messages from Good’s phone that they believe were sent by someone impersonating her.
The messages claimed her card had stopped working and that she needs money.
“Do you know how to send using the bitcoin on Cash App? That’s the only way I can get it out,” one message reads, according to a screenshot the family shared with NBC News. “I’ll send you the Bitcoin wallet.”
When Calloway asked her aunt to call her, the person texting back said they were at a gas station and couldn’t talk.
“I just started crying because I knew it wasn’t her,” Calloway told NBC Nightly News. She noted that her aunt doesn’t drive.
Goods’ son also received a call the family believes was from someone impersonating his missing mother. He recorded parts of the conversation and shared it with NBC News.
On the call, he asked the woman to do a video chat with him.
“My phone is bad,” she said.
Family of woman missing in Las Vegas plead for answers
When he asked where she was, she said, “Home.” The call disconnected he pressed her for an address.
The family said they have turned everything over to the Las Vegas police.
Police spokesperson Aden Ocampo told NBC News that based on detective work so far, Goods has been classified as a missing adult and there is “nothing to suggest she is in danger.”
Ocampo said investigators believe the calls, texts and Bitcoin requests the family has received could be the result of “spoofing” — a tactic which scammers deliberately falsify information transmitted to someone’s caller ID to disguise their identity, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Goods’ case remains active.
