Rookie investors in BC are being lured into fake online investments.
That’s according to Cpl Arash Seyed with the Federal Serious and Organized Crime Unit, who said victims are being tempted by online ads promising immediate returns.
“They seem to have been targeting people doing online searches such as how to invest in cryptocurrency, and things like that. And some even came through friends accounts it seemed like.”
“But, what they did is reach out to these ads, and when they spoke to someone on the other end they continued to get persistent calls from these individuals encouraging them to continue to invest. And showing them that they were making more money on their investments,” added Seyed.
He added that 3rd party investment sites are set up as part of the scam.
Seyed noted that there are multiple scams that seem to lead back to the same source.
“There were eight different sites, or platforms. But throughout the investigation it turned out they were all linked to the same organization.”
He said there are thousands of victims to online scams, the numbers are rising, and cryptocurrency scams are just one aspect on how people are getting targeted.
Seyed stressed that people need to educate themselves on these threats, and to run any potentially suspicious sites through the BC Securities Commission if you come across any.