The Canadian Police Warn Against Comprehensive Bitcoin Hacks and Scam
2018 has so far established itself as a really tough year for the crypto industry at large. To add more salt to the Bear market inflicted the proverbial wound, scamming and hacking attacks has become the order of the day in the industry. In light of this, the Canadian police have recently issued a warning to the general public to be more careful and highly cautious when dealing in any form of crypto-related transactions.
Canadian Police Warns
According to the police department of Edmonton, Alberta Province Canada, there has been a significant increase in the number of Bitcoin-related scams in the province and country as a whole. The police further made it known that new methods are being used by these scammers and hackers, so normal fraud prevention methods may be useless against them.
According to a statement recently made by the police department, “reported cases of identity theft and fraud have dramatically risen between 2013 and 2017 by almost 90% with an increase of nearly 10% in 2018 alone. While cash and gift cards were the main avenues of online fraudsters in recent years, the growing trend of Bitcoin scams shows that crypto is now the currency of choice for modern-day crypto-hackers.”
Constable Tuyen Nguyen of the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) has also made sure to provide some details as regards how these “new age” scammers operate.
He stated that:
“What has evolved is the method of payment demanded by fraudsters. While gift cards were once the preferred payment of choice, fraudsters are now increasingly demanding payment in other forms such as bitcoin and e-transfers.”
It’s Difficult to Keep Track
Another Police officer, Constable Kyle Pepper also shed more light on how difficult the situation has gotten for the police department.
Kyle stated that:
“It’s a very hard fraud to investigate given that after the money has been transferred, we can’t freeze the funds that are in the machine because it’s already been converted. It’s unfortunate. There’s been a lot of people that have lost a lot of money.”
