The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) thwarted a cryptocurrency scam worth $90,000 in bitcoin by using a warning poster.
According to a report by Global News, RCMP in Red Deer, Alberta were able to prevent a victim from depositing $90,000 in BTC into a scam account using a warning poster placed on a nearby Bitcoin ATM.
RCMP had begun an investigation on July 3 into a phone scam where a victim received a call from a suspect who claimed to be a member of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The victim was told his identity had been compromised in a money laundering incident and would be required to deposit his money into a bitcoin account to protect his funds.
The report reads,
The [victim] went to a nearby Bitcoin machine, but a warning poster and an employee at the business stopped the victim from completing the transaction.
The poster had been placed on the machine by RCMP in an effort to thwart similar phone scams, which authorities say are becoming more common across Canada.
Cst. Andrew Devine said in a news release,
These are not small crimes; people are losing their life savings to these scams.
Devine continued, saying the country needed to raise more awareness about the risks associated with using bitcoin.
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