Canadian resident falls victim to a series of cryptocurrency scams, with scammers impersonating Royal Canadian Mounted Police to carry out secondary frauds

Odaily Planet Daily reports that a resident of Nanaimo, Canada, was scammed at the end of last year after receiving a text message promoting remote stock trading jobs. The victim deposited about 5,000 CAD (approximately 3,600 USD) through a cryptocurrency ATM. Earlier this year, the victim saw an online message disguised as an RCMP announcement encouraging fraud victims to report the crime. After submitting a form, a person claiming to be a lawyer called, saying they had found two cryptocurrency accounts linked to the victim and could help recover about $60,000 in so-called profits.

Gary O’Brien, media relations officer for Nanaimo RCMP, stated that the RCMP does not contact individuals about discovered cryptocurrency accounts, does not cooperate with private companies to recover lost funds, and does not request any form of payment to investigate fraud.

Andy Zhou, co-founder and CEO of blockchain security firm BlockSec, said this type of scam is known as a “fake recovery service scam” and has systemic characteristics. The scammers usually have access to information collected during the original scam. Organized fraud groups circulate lists of victims who have already sent money, making these individuals targets for secondary scams. Impersonating law enforcement agencies is effective because it exploits the “authority bias” psychological mechanism. Canadian police have been conducting cryptocurrency investigation training since 2022.