BTC scammers impersonating police find new victims in Canada

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A BTC scam that recently emerged in Canada has continued to expand across the country. According to local reports, the scammers are now targeting residents of British Columbia, impersonating the police and extorting for BTC payments from their victims.

The Royal Canada Mounted Police (RCMP) in Burnaby recently revealed that they had been receiving increasing reports of scams involving BTC. As CoinGeek reported, the scam has previously been rampant in Strathcona County in Alberta Province.

Police said the scammers have been calling their victims, impersonating the RCMP. The scammers tell the victim that they have an arrest warrant out for them because their social insurance number (SIN) cards have been used irregularly.

#Burnaby RCMP has seen an increase of the number of scams involving the transfer of money via Bitcoin.

Recent Scam:

Suspect calls & advises the victim they have an arrest warrant because their SIN card was used at multiple Service Canada locations. pic.twitter.com/DZ98odFO3V

— Burnaby RCMP (@BurnabyRCMP) June 23, 2020

The scammers keep calling the victim multiple times with the same threat of arrest. They also order them not to tell any other person, threatening to arrest anyone the victim shares the details with.

One resident of Burnaby, a city in British Columbia province, recently lost C$15,000 (US$11,000), the RCMP revealed.

Elsewhere in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, a resident lost C$4,000 (US$2,940) to the scam. According to a local outlet, the woman received a call from the scammers on June 23. The scammers told the woman that they were from the Canada Revenue Agency and that they had a warrant of arrest over her SIN card’s irregular activity.

The woman described the scammers as “aggressive, manipulative and convincing.”

She was given instructions on how to convert her fiat to BTC and send it to the scammers. Despite the police launching an investigation into the scam, they were unable to recover the funds or make any arrests. They believe that the scammers were likely based overseas.

“If you receive a phone call from the ‘Strathmore Police’ indicating that there is a warrant for your arrest due to a Service Canada or Revenue Canada issue with your social insurance number, hang up. It is likely a fraud,” the police warned.

In Alberta, the scammers made away with close to $15,000 worth of BTC, employing similar tactics and impersonating the RCMP.