Canadian resident falls victim to a series of cryptocurrency scams, with scammers impersonating Royal Canadian Mounted Police to carry out secondary frauds

SmartContractAuditor · 2026-03-05T04:41:19+00:00

A resident of Nanaimo, Canada, lost 5,000 CAD in a remote stock trading scam and was subsequently targeted in a second scam. The scammer impersonated a lawyer and posed as the RCMP to recover funds, using the victim's information to carry out fake recovery services. Currently, the police have initiated related investigation and training.

SmartContractAuditor

2026-03-05 04:41:19

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Odaily Planet Daily reports that a resident of Nanaimo, Canada, was scammed at the end of last year after receiving a text message promoting remote stock trading jobs. The victim deposited about 5,000 CAD (approximately $3,600 USD) through a cryptocurrency ATM. Earlier this year, the victim saw an online message disguised as an RCMP announcement encouraging fraud victims to report the crime. After submitting a form, a person claiming to be a lawyer called, saying they had found two cryptocurrency accounts linked to the victim and could help recover about $60,000 in so-called profits.

Gary O’Brien, media relations officer for the Nanaimo RCMP, stated that the RCMP does not contact individuals about discovered cryptocurrency accounts, does not cooperate with private companies to recover lost funds, and does not request any payments to investigate fraud.

Andy Zhou, co-founder and CEO of blockchain security firm BlockSec, said this type of scam is known as a “fake recovery service scam” and has systemic features. The scammers usually have access to information collected during the original scam. Organized fraud groups circulate lists of victims who have already sent money, making them targets for secondary scams. Impersonating law enforcement agencies is effective because it exploits the “authority bias” psychological mechanism. Canadian police have been conducting cryptocurrency investigation training since 2022.

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