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Peterborough County OPP is seeing an increase in fraud complaints relating to crypto investment scams and are warning residents to avoid them.
Police say they’re seeing two specific variations of the scam involving social media platforms.
In some cases, the scam starts on a social media or dating website as a romance scam and quickly turns into an investment opportunity, according to police.
READ MORE: Peterborough police warn of online rental scam
Police state victims often lose larger sums of money because of the level of trust that’s gained by the suspect in this scenario and in some cases the suspect will compromise the victim’s friends’ social media accounts, so the victim thinks they’re communicating with a known friend.
The suspect will call the victim directly and convince them to invest in cryptocurrency and sometimes will ask the victim for remote access to the victim’s computer or will send an email to the victim offering a crypto investment opportunity.
The other scenario that’s circulating right now, according to police, is one where the victim clicks an ad on social media and then provides contact information.
The suspect will then contact the victim and convince them to invest.
Police say to watch for several warning signs including:
According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), investment scams were the highest reported scams nationally based on dollar-loss in 2021 at $163.9 million.
READ MORE: Peterborough police retrieve victim’s $100,000 lost in cryptocurrency scam
Police say it’s important to protect yourself from scammers by doing the following:
Anyone who suspects they have been the victim of a cybercrime or know someone who has, to contact your local police service and report it to the CAFC reporting system or by phone at 1-888-495-8501.
If you haven’t been victimized, but are aware of a scam, you’re still asked to report it to the CAFC so that it can alert others.
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