Residents of Calgary, Alberta, have reportedly lost over $22.5 million to various cryptocurrency-related scams this year, according to Canadian police.
Officials in Alberta revealed on Monday that there have been 340 reported crypto scams since the beginning of the year. This is a significant increase from last year’s statistics, which showed losses of $14 million across 321 reported scams.
The Calgary Police opine that these figures are likely “vastly underreported.” In a statement released on Tuesday, they highlighted that while the majority of cryptocurrency is legitimate, it operates in a deregulated marketplace. This has, at times, been exploited by scammers as a form of payment connected to various frauds.
Among the most common scams are investment schemes, where victims are promised higher returns if they send funds to the scammer first. The police emphasized that “only scammers will demand full payment upfront.”
They also cautioned against trusting online promises of large returns in the crypto markets and social media or online dating app users mentioning crypto investments, labelling such messages as “likely a scam.”
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