Shannon Michels, Matt Bubka and Kevin Zahn were feted with certificates of appreciation and coins from Ward County Sheriff Robert Roed at a ceremony on Thursday. The three are staff at Karma Convenience store, where they observed a woman on the phone sending money through a cryptocurrency ATM.

The staff began to suspect the victim was being scammed and stopped her from proceeding further before speaking with her. The victim shared she believed she was speaking to a law enforcement officer who was threatening to arrest her unless she paid a bond. Law enforcement were called to the scene to reassure her that she was not going to be arrested and confirmed that she was the victim of a scam. Though the victim was spared from further losses thanks to the action of the store’s staff, Capt. Jason Kraft stated her losses were “a substantial amount for anyone.”

“We’re hoping the certificates of appreciation being presented to the three staff encourage others to do the same thing if they see something similar,” Kraft said. “The owner of the store has since put a sign on the machine that says ‘Law enforcement will never ask you to send them money through this machine’ as another preventative measure.”

Scam calls from individuals purporting to be law enforcement or agents for institutions such as the Internal Revenue Service have grown more prevalent, according to Roed. He said the demographic most likely to be targeted may not receive messaging and information shared by the department through social media.

Charles Crane/MDN Ward County Sheriff Robert Roed, speaking at an award ceremony Wednesday, said there is a need to spread more awareness in elderly populations about shakedown scams.

“They’re a newspaper and evening news kind of people. We need people to know that scams like this are out there,” Roed said.