Family of Missing Las Vegas Woman Gets Bitcoin Demands From Her Phone

The family of a 63-year-old Brooklyn woman who disappeared in Las Vegas earlier this month says someone posing as her has been calling and texting from her phone, demanding payment in bitcoin.

Alisa Goods vanished on August 8 while visiting a friend, her family told "NBC Nightly News." Her niece, Alana Calloway, said Goods left her friend's house to go to a CVS pharmacy and never returned.

Days later, the family began receiving strange text messages from Goods' phone that they believe were sent by someone impersonating her. The messages claimed her card had stopped working and that she needed money.

"Do you know how to send using the bitcoin on Cash App? That's the only way I can get it out," one message read, according to a screenshot shared with NBC News. "I'll send you the Bitcoin wallet."

When Calloway asked to speak with her aunt by phone, the person texting back claimed to be at a gas station and unable to talk. "I just started crying, because I knew it wasn't her," Calloway said, noting that her aunt does not drive.

Goods' son also received a call the family believes came from someone impersonating his missing mother. He recorded parts of the conversation and shared it with NBC News. When he asked the woman to video chat, she said, "My phone is bad." When he asked where she was, she said, "Home," before the call disconnected as he pressed for an address.

The family said they have turned everything over to Las Vegas police. A police spokesperson, Aden Ocampo, told NBC News that based on detective work so far, Goods has been classified as a missing adult and there is "nothing to suggest she is in danger."

Ocampo said investigators believe the calls, texts and bitcoin requests could be the result of "spoofing," a tactic in which scammers falsify caller ID information to disguise their identity, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Goods' case remains active.