Kingston (October 3, 2019) – The Kingston police issued a regional scam alert. Two residents reported being defrauded out of a total of about $25,000 in Bitcoin by phone scammers impersonating police officers. The police remind the public that they would never ask for any kind of payment on the phone, especially not in a cryptocurrency.
After two reports about phone scams in the community, Kingston police issued a regional scam alert. According to Global News, the two victims have been defrauded of a total of about $25,000 in Bitcoin.
The scammers pretended to be police officers and told the victims that their personal banking accounts, SIN, or other information has been involved in a major fraud case or money laundering investigation, the police explain in a press release. Then, the fake officers request a huge amount in Bitcoin in order to fix the issue.
The police remind the public that ‘the Kingston Police will never contact you requesting payment over the phone. In addition to this, no police service would ever request any form of payment using Bitcoin. […] Stop and think about what is being asked of you and do not fall for the scammer’s tricks.’
Anyone with information about this scam is asked to contact Detective Stacey from Kingston Police at cstacey@kingstonpolice.ca.
