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A Wellington County resident has misplaced round $500,000 in a cryptocurrency rip-off, in response to Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
On Thursday, OPP mentioned the resident is from the Township of Wellington North.
Over a interval of six months, the sufferer invested roughly $500,000 with a fraudulent on-line cryptocurrency funding agency wherein that they had day by day contact with, OPP mentioned.
Based on OPP const. Jacob Unger, in a fraud like this, what’s frequent is the alleged investor or firm will promise very excessive returns, often 100%, and have an app or account that you could log into and exhibits it may well present you now have 1,000,000 {dollars}.
“To entry it, you must ship in extra money, after which you may get it,” mentioned Unger.
He added: “They’ve created pretend platforms or accounts the place it appears such as you’re seeing your funding portfolio, however it’s in truth all fraudulent.”
Unger was not capable of say how usually a lot of these scams happen, however mentioned that is definitely one of many largest losses this yr.
“Our crime unit is aiding within the investigation, but it surely comes right down to anybody to only take a couple of steps to guard themselves in relation to on-line investments or investing cash,” mentioned Unger.
Wellington County OPP are encouraging residents to go to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) to find out about fraud prevention.
Based on the CAFC, the utilization of cryptocurrency in fraud elevated by 238 per cent from 2020 to 2021.
The CAFC mentioned in 2020 an estimated $23,009,414 was misplaced by way of cryptocurrency scams. That quantity elevated to $77,872,155 in 2021.
Since 2017, CAFC estimates $122,698,484 has been lost in cryptocurrency scams.
“Additional, the growth of cash-to-cryptocurrency Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in Canada has streamlined sure types of fraud. Canada at present has the second most Bitcoin ATMs on the earth, with practically 2,500 ATM places,” the CAFC mentioned. “In sure instances, fraudsters persuade victims to transform fiat foreign money into cryptocurrency utilizing ATMs, after which deposit the funds into the fraudster’s pockets by way of the ATM.”
“Globally, Canadians rank close to the highest by way of size of time spent on-line and are placing extra private info on-line than ever earlier than,” the CAFC 2021 annual report mentioned. “Whereas this pattern might be partially attributed to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the digital surroundings is anticipated to proceed rising.”
“Globally, Canadians rank close to the highest by way of size of time spent on-line and are placing extra private info on-line than ever earlier than,” the CAFC 2021 annual report says. “Whereas this pattern might be partially attributed to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the digital surroundings is anticipated to proceed rising.”
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