Digital currency fraud in Canada has risen in the past four years, police have reported. According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), this type of fraud has burned up 400% in the last four years.
Canada’s digital money industry has been thriving in recent years. Despite the collapse of the QuadrigaCX exchange in controversial situations, Canadians have continued to embrace digital currencies, with studies showing that three out of four Canadians know what Bitcoin is.
With rapid adoption came an unfortunate rise in digital currency fraud. Kris Clark, RCMP organized crime officer, told Global News Global News, “Cryptocurrency fraud is on the rise in Canada, with a difference of more than 400 percent between 2017 and 2020.”
He said, “Canadians lost nearly $ 11 million (US $ 8.7 million) through digital currency scams alone, in the first eight months of 2020.”
Digital money scams have varied over the years, from those that target the greed of victims such as “double-your-money” scams to those that target harassment such as hate scams. Recently, fraudsters have been targeting lone victims, pretending to have a romantic interest in them before attracting digital money.
In Vancouver, authorities said local residents lost $ 2 million to digital money scams in one week earlier this month. According to the Vancouver Police Department, such scams have tripled this year.
Tania Visintin, a spokeswoman for the region, said, “Predators often exploit two strong human emotions – greed and love. Victims are usually attracted by the idea that they will be part of a money-making opportunity or in other cases, favor a friend or a romantic interest. ”
According to CTV, extortion scams are growing rapidly in Canada. In 2020, Canadians lost $ 10 million to these scams. Although digital currencies were not involved in all of these initiatives, they made up a large percentage of ransom payments.
“There is a risk of a coercive nature or nature and they will be asked to pay with Bitcoin. When it comes to these scams this is what we see, ”said RCMP investigator Jeff Thomson.
Digital currency rules will be crucial to stop the rampant crime. As CoinGeek has pointed out, most jurisdictions have enacted new laws to regulate the industry, trying to stop the scammers from a growing industry across the globe. -world.
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