A Canadian woman has lost funds to a notorious grandson Bitcoin scam that has been ongoing in several parts of the country. This incident was shared by the Canadian police, highlighting their hope that it can help other potential victims avoid falling for the scam.
According to the Canadian police, the grandson scam has now evolved, with the scammers now asking their victims for Bitcoin instead of wire transfers of money. The grandson scam is a criminal activity that has been rampant in the country, with elderly people receiving calls claiming their grandsons are in some sort of trouble. The scammers use the urgency of the situation and the emotional connection to appeal to their elderly victims to send money to help out their grandsons.
Canadian woman loses funds to scammers
In this case, the Canadian police mentioned that the elderly victim was led to believe that her grandson had just been jailed. This is a typical move to strike fear into the victim. The majority of these scammers also try to impersonate law enforcement agents to give their scam an iota of credibility. The scammer asked her to send $2,000 in Bitcoin to have him released from police custody. The victim, without hesitation, went ahead to send the funds.
According to the Canadian police, the victim stated in her report that she received a report from a man who identified himself as Tom Scott. The man told her that he was calling from outside the province. He further went on to narrate how the woman’s grandson had gotten into a squabble and was left with a broken nose. Scott also mentioned that the grandson was now in police custody. After asking what she could do to help her grandson, Scott asked her to pay for his release.
Canadian authorities claimed that the scammer gave the woman directions to a local Bitcoin machine and provided her with instructions on how to purchase the digital asset and send it. The man continued to call her even after she sent the money, a ploy to get her to send more money. However, Canadian police said the victim’s granddaughter intercepted one of the calls and put an end to it. She told the scammers that the police had already been alerted and they were looking into him.
Authorities urge residents to be careful
Speaking about the development, Canadian authorities have issued warnings to residents to be watchful about scams like these. They noted that they would never call anybody to ask for payments, especially in Bitcoin and other digital forms of currency, to release anybody who had been arrested. “If you receive a phone call from anyone claiming to be a law enforcement officer asking for bitcoin, money, or gift cards, hang up and break off all communication—it’s a scam,” said R/Cst Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.
In addition, the Canadian anti-fraud center has released several ways that scammers may try to use. In the post, they mentioned that aside from saying that a grandson had been arrested, they may say the grandchild had been in an accident or had trouble returning from a foreign country. According to reports, the fraudsters carry out a new variation of the scam where they will pretend to be a loved one using an unknown email or number to text their victims.
The anti-fraud center also released several guidelines for users if they discover that they are in this situation. One such is to hang up the phone if they are contacted by a loved one via an unknown number. This way, they can call the person with a phone number they recognize to establish if it was the person or not. In addition, they should call the local police for confirmation if anybody claims they are from the local police. The agency also urged residents to be careful with the information they post online.
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