Man accused of posing as store manager, getting worker to deposit cash in crypto machines

A so-called “threat actor” posing as a grocery store manager in Las Vegas convinced an employee over the phone to break into the store safe, clear out its cash registers and make multiple deposits into cryptocurrency machines.

The scam allegedly took place in August at a Smart & Final outlet at 4439 W. Charleston Blvd. A suspect in the thefts, Austin Acosta, 28, was taken into custody Wednesday, according to an arrest report released by the Metropolitan Police Department.

Acosta faces felony charges of theft of $100,000 or more and conspiracy to commit theft, based on Justice Court records.

On Aug. 28, the manager of the Smart & Final contacted police, saying he believed that the store had been scammed.

Police described the suspect as a “threat actor” who had been pretending to be the store’s manager, the report stated.

The store’s night supervisor told police that at 8 p.m. on Aug. 27, she answered a call at work from someone claiming to be “Michael Anderson,” a “general operations manager” who needed “her help making a payment for a shipment with UPS” that was “extremely time sensitive,” the report states.

“He told her that they couldn’t afford to lose the shipment and so he needed her to follow instructions,” according to the report.

The supervisor began receiving texts on her mobile phone with the “threat actor” posing as the store’s manager, telling her he was on a conference call with Anderson and wanted her to take money from the store, bring it to a Circle K store on Valley View Boulevard and deposit it into a Bitcoin Depot cryptocurrency digital money machine there, according to police.

The supervisor, following the actor’s instructions, made three deposits into the machine at the Circle K, and then the actor told her to go to a Chevron gas station on West Sahara Avenue that had a Hilt cryptocurrency device, where she made two other cash deposits, police said.

The actor directed her “to break into the store safe” to obtain additional funds for the deposits, according to the police report.

Afterward, the person told her to go to another location on West Tropicana Avenue and deposit cash into a Hilt machine there, but the supervisor replied that she did not think there was any more money left, police said.

The man on the phone then instructed her “to pull it out of the registers,” which she did, police reported.

But she discovered that the Hilt machine “was full” and would not accept any more cash, to which he said, still pretending to be her boss, that a UPS express agent was going to pick up the rest of the cash, about $8,300, according to the report.

At 5:17 a.m. on Aug. 28, the supervisor met with the supposed UPS agent at a Terrible’s gas station on West Tropicana, gave him the cash and returned to the store to report the incident, police said.

During an investigation, police detectives viewed footage from surveillance cameras at the gas station and a Jack in the Box restaurant and allegedly saw the suspect drive up in a white Ford Ranger pickup truck with a black metal rack on top.

Police ultimately traced the pickup to Acosta, including from his Facebook profile picture showing him driving it, and arrested him at his North Las Vegas home, officers reported.

While being interviewed, Acosta told police that an unknown person texted him on the WhatsApp social media venue, instructing him to pick up the cash and take it to a different location, police stated.

Acosta’s next appearance in Justice Court is scheduled for Tuesday.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.