Florida investigators say an inmate serving time in a Georgia prison impersonated a sheriff's office and pressured an elderly Marion County resident into depositing $5,600 into a cryptocurrency ATM — all from a cellphone smuggled into the facility.

Patrick Marquelle Turner, 31, was extradited to Florida on August 24 to face fraud charges.

A spoofed call from the "sheriff's office"

The call showed up on the victim's phone as coming from the "Marion County Sheriff's Office." The voice on the other end said the man had missed jury duty and would be arrested unless he paid a fine.

Caller ID is easy to spoof. The Federal Trade Commission has warned repeatedly that a scammer can make a real agency's name or number appear on a screen even when the call comes from elsewhere.

The man drove to a crypto ATM and deposited $5,600, deputies said.

Turner ran the scheme on a contraband cellphone while he was in custody at Wheeler Correctional Facility, investigators say. Smuggled phones are a persistent problem in U.S. prisons, where federal law bars the use of cellphone jammers and corrections agencies have long struggled to keep the devices out of inmates' hands. He is charged with grand theft, money laundering, defrauding someone over 65, impersonating an officer, and using a communication device to commit a felony. The Florida charges are accusations, and no conviction has been entered.

Detectives tracked the $5,600 as it hopped from account to account and connected eight separate transactions back to Turner. Marion County officials obtained an arrest warrant for him while he was still in the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections, then transported him to the Marion County Jail.

A wider network traced to Georgia prisons

Florida investigators suspect inmates inside Georgia prisons are running a network of impersonation scams, using accomplices outside the walls to collect and launder the cash.

The Volusia Sheriff's Office has charged multiple people it says funneled scam proceeds through cryptocurrency.

D'Zyre Youngblood, 28, of Atlanta, was linked to a scheme that drained more than $79,000 from a Florida woman after a caller claimed to be a "Captain Eric Dietrich" and threatened arrest. Detectives traced the money to a Coinbase account tied to Youngblood. She told investigators that people in contact with inmates asked to route money via her account.

Others have been charged as well. Christina Rimes of Morven, Georgia, is accused of taking $17,000 from a Daytona Beach resident. Lakesha Heard was extradited to Volusia County in August 2025. Her alleged victim was told she had missed jury duty and put $9,300 into a Bitcoin ATM.

Crypto ATMs became the cash-out counter

Government offices don't take fines for jury duty over the phone. The Marion County Clerk of Court and Comptroller told residents on August 10 that its staff will not call and demand payment.

Real law enforcement will not text a warrant or threaten arrest over a hang-up, and only a scammer insists on payment through cryptocurrency, gift cards, or a wire transfer, according to the FTC.

Cryptocurrency transfers are effectively irreversible once confirmed, which is what makes Bitcoin ATMs attractive to fraud rings: cash goes in, coins move out within minutes, and victims have little recourse unless the movement is flagged quickly.

In 2025, the FBI recorded a record $333.5 million in Bitcoin ATM fraud, affecting more than 10,000 victims, with older adults the most affected group.

Authorities in Louisiana recovered $200,000 from scammers who targeted elderly residents. The recovery followed the passage of a law requiring warning signs on the machines, limiting deposits to $3,000 per day, and imposing a 72-hour hold to give victims time to detect fraud and recover their money.