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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A West Palm Beach man in his late 70s lost $22,000 after falling victim to a sophisticated Bitcoin scheme that began with a fake Amazon fraud alert, police said.

It all started with a fraudulent text message appearing to come from Amazon, claiming the victim's account had been compromised. The victim then received calls from someone identifying himself as "Agent John Krebs" with the Federal Trade Commission, calling from a Washington, D.C. number.

The caller told the man he was under investigation for money laundering and directed him to deposit $22,000 into a Bitcoin kiosk at a gas station in West Palm Beach to resolve the matter.

"No government agency is going to contact you that you need to make a payment at a Bitcoin kiosk. That i

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