Cryptocurrency scams have been on the rise, defrauding Canadians of nearly $11 million in 2020.
The B.C. RCMP federal policing cybercrime operations group has shut down the bogus online cryptocurrency platforms after receiving numerous complaints from people who have been scammed out of their money.
The ads would prompt the curious investor to contact a bitcoin exchange platform. A company representative will then get in touch with them, then convince or cajole them into putting money in, either through a third-party investment platform or an app downloaded onto their home computer or mobile phone that gave fraudsters access to their financial accounts.
Later, they realized they were duped into transferring money into a fraudulent account or were defrauded through the app’s access to their online wallet.