Crypto fraud costs BC senior $7.5 million

A BC senior was defrauded out of $7.5 million in a months-long cryptocurrency scam, according to authorities.

Burnaby RCMP described the “elaborate scam” in a warning issued Thursday, calling the case “one of the largest personal frauds the department has ever investigated.”

The victim told police she was first contacted through a text message in Mandarin in the spring of 2022 by someone asking her about her “personal business history,” Mounties said, noting the woman also speaks Mandarin.

“We are sharing this story to protect other people from falling victim to similar scams. Scammers often change tactics. In this case, it appears they were able to tailor their scam to specifically target this victim,” said Const. . Philip Ho in the media release.

Over a period of months, the victim and the scammer communicated frequently via text, phone and a chat app, cultivating what RCMP described as a friendly, trusting relationship. Eventually, the woman was convinced to invest millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

When they checked her investments online, they appeared to be legitimate, but police say this was part of the scheme and the apps the senior downloaded were “spoofed” to look like recognizable trading platforms.

When she tried to withdraw her money, she was unable to do so, according to authorities who say “the person she was communicating with disappeared.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Someone using a different name contacted the victim and offered to help her get the money back.

– The victim, who was pressured and threatened throughout the fraud, invested more, but unfortunately this was also a fraud, according to the police.

The victim reported the ordeal to the police in December 2022.

“These scammers went to great lengths over many months to defraud this senior and convince her that these were legitimate investments,” Ho said.

“This type of fraud often goes unreported, but it is important that victims come forward to the police so that we can investigate and help support victims, who are at a higher risk of recovery when they have been defrauded by a scam.”

No one has been arrested or charged in the case, but the investigation is ongoing.

Burnaby RCMP are encouraging people to familiarize themselves with some of the warning signs of scams. Information on how to identify potential scams is available online.