Consumer complaint received 2025-07-23 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: HoldCo LLC
State: IN

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from a man claiming to be XXXX XXXX from the XXXX XXXX sheriffs office. He informed me there was a warrant out for my arrest. He claimed on XX/XX/XXXX I signed certified mail sent to my home. That mail was a subpoena for me to be a material witness regarding an event involving a XXXX. He claimed this event took place in XX/XX/XXXX. He said judge, XXXX XXXX was taking leniency on me because I had no criminal history. My charges were FTA ( failure to appear ) and COC ( contempt of court ). I was told I was able to resolve this issue by choice of two routes : criminal or civil. The civil route would require me to pay a fine for the current charges upon paying the fine. I would obtain a receipt from a federal kiosk. I would then take that receipt up to the XXXX XXXX sheriffs office at that time they would perform a signature verification, by XXXX XXXX, to confirm it was not my signature on the original certified mail. at that time they would return my funds previously paid. If I chose the criminal route, I would be arrested the following morning. If I chose to proceed, civilly, I have to follow the MCO ( make and maintain contact order ) as well as the SGA ( suppression gag order ). Upon questioning the validity, I went up to the sheriffs office while on the phone with the people and told them I was in the lobby to come out and talk to me. They very aggressively told me to go back to my car that I was on federal property and if they came out to talk to me, they would arrest me. I had my daughter with me and out of fear. I went back to my car. I was then transferred to a lieutenant. XXXX  XXXX with a badge number of XXXX. As a confirmation, they called my phone from the XXXX XXXX sheriffs number XXXX XXXX. I then proceeded to try to transfer money. I was told they accepted XXXX, XXXX, or XXXX. After attempting to XXXX money, I felt that this was not right. I did not want them to have my bank account information and therefore I decided to withdraw {$5000.00} in cash. They then gave me different locations of federal kiosk and which I could pay these fines. I question the locations as they were in smoke shops and gas stations. They then sent me a XXXX XXXX  to scan at a bitcoin location. They gave me two separate phone numbers to try. Neither of these phone numbers worked. I ended up having to put my own phone number in. I then inserted the XXXX in cash and was given a physical receipt as well as a wallet address. I returned to my car in hopes I could now go and complete the signature verification to get my money back. The man on the phone then told me that there was something still wrong with my account and I never paid a registration fee. The registration fee was {$8000.00}. By this point I was hysterical. I hung up the phone And called the police and made a report. They confirmed this was a scam.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation