Fake Uber Driver Charged With Stealing $223,000 in Crypto From Passengers

A man in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto from victims who thought he was an Uber driver. Prosecutors have called it an “extremely sophisticated electronic fraud,” and it’s a strange approach to scamming that makes it sound unique in several ways.

Nuruhussein Hussein, 40, allegedly picked up two unsuspecting people who were looking for Uber rides they’d ordered in Scottsdale—one in March and the other in October according to Fox 10—by shouting their names on the street outside a hotel. It’s not clear how Hussein may have known these people were looking for rides and court documents give no indication how he accomplished this or knew the victims would have crypto accounts, according to Fox 10, though a hotel does make sense as a target-rich environment for those looking to get picked up.

Once the victims were in the car, Hussein allegedly obtained the phones of the victims through some kind of pretense, including problems with his own phone and the need to look something up as well as a need to connect with the Uber app, according to NBC News. Hussein would then allegedly open up the victim’s Coinbase account.

“While manipulating the unsuspecting victim’s phone the suspect transferred cryptocurrency from their digital wallet to his digital wallet,” police reportedly explained in a statement. And when one of the victims asked for their phone back, Hussein allegedly got mean and threatening.

“He made threats to one of the victims that they needed to chill or something bad would happen, and the victim believed that he had a gun, although he did not see a weapon at that time,” the court documents allege, according to Fox 10.

Hussein was placed on $200,000 bond and is banned from using the internet. The judge also ordered electronic monitoring of his location and told him he needs to stay in Maricopa County, according to NBC News.

There does appear to be a discrepancy between what the police are saying publicly and what’s contained in the court documents, according to Fox 10. The Scottsdale Police Department apparently allege Hussein stole more than $300,000 but the court documents list the theft as about $223,000. It’s unclear if there was a miscalculation in some way perhaps attributable to the fluctuations of crypto. But we don’t know for sure.

The Scottsdale Police Department didn’t respond to questions emailed Friday. Gizmodo will update this post if we hear back.