During the last couple of years, Bitcoin has mostly served genuine purposes, as around 95% of current trading volumes are completely legal, and do not involve fraud, or illegal activities. However, as the public isn’t yet entirely educated about the dangers that are associated with the digital currency, it is understandable that the regional police in Canada has just issued a warning meant to warn citizens about a fraud investment scheme that is based on Bitcoin.
According to recent reports, it seems like residents based in Ontario, have recently been contacted by fraudsters, who attempted to sell them money-making pitches based on bitcoin. Those affected have lost their investment funds to the fraudsters, yet, luckily, to major losses have been reported so far.
In the statement, the Ontario regional police mentioned that: “Residents have reported being contacted by fraudsters after applying for jobs or responding to ads online involving a promise to make money. The fraudsters send cheques to the victims and ask them to use the money to purchase bitcoins – a virtual currency used globally.”
Once the victim goes ahead and purchases the digital currency, the e-cheque in question would bounce, thus breaking the transfer, and allowing the fraudsters to keep the funds in question. Additionally, there have also been reports stating that Bitcoin is being used to promote an income tax scam, in Durham, yet no further statements have been made in this direction.
At this moment in time, the number of people affected by the scams hasn’t been released, yet it seems that some residents have lost a few thousand dollars as well.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, it seems like money-related, and pitch-based scams are still around, and with bitcoin becoming more and more popular, it is important to educate the public about the measures they need to take to test the authenticity of the pitches in question, while also learning to better protect their funds.