Scottsdale police urge caution after fake rideshare driver steals $300k in crypto

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Police in Scottsdale recently busted a man who allegedly posed as a rideshare driver and stole more than $300,000 in cryptocurrency from unsuspecting passengers.

Nuruhussein Hussein is facing several felony charges, including money laundering, fraud and theft.

Police say he pretended to be a rideshare driver and picked up people waiting for rides outside of the W Hotel in Scottsdale.

“It is such a unique fraud scheme, to be able to track it to a local suspect, extraordinarily rare,” said Scottsdale Police Det. Jeff Brennan.

Court documents reveal when the victims got into Hussein’s car, he would ask them for their phone, saying his Uber app or phone had died.

When the passengers handed over their phones, police said.

Hussein would transfer cryptocurrency from their digital wallet to his digital wallet.

It is easy to do and takes seconds if you don’t have protection.

“First and foremost, never give anyone your phone. Under any circumstance,” said Brennan. “Have two-way authentication as far as an extra security feature that requires biometrics like a thumbprint or face scan.”

Brennan said that in this case, they were able to track the cryptocurrency transfers back to an IP address linked to Hussein in Tempe. But other cases are harder to trace.

Brennan said victims have lost millions of dollars in cryptocurrency scams in Scottsdale alone this year. As of this week, only $70,000 has been recovered.

“Typically speaking, we see a lot of the cryptocurrency go overseas,” said Brennan.

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