A Los Lunas woman got caught up in a wacky kind of scam recently when she tried to apply for Italian dual citizenship through the honorary consul’s office in Santa Fe. In the end, she was duped into sending off copies of her birth certificate, Social Security card and driver’s license, as well as her mother’s original passport into the United States and her mother’s birth certificate.

Fortunately, the woman did not follow through on sending supposed processing fees of $2,500, which were to be sent by money order or Bitcoin. It all started when she sent an email to the Italian honorary counsul in Santa Fe, Lino Pertusini, asking whether she qualified for Italian citizenship because her mother had been born in Italy.