The Bitcoin ATM machine positioned at Woodgrove Centre. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes / Nanaimo News Now

Bitcoin scam

Bitcoin scams cost two Nanaimo men thousands

Jan 18, 2025 | 5:55 AM

NANAIMO — Two unrelated Bitcoin scams involving significant volumes of digital currency burned a pair of Nanaimo area men this week.

Nanaimo RCMP say both incidents occurred on Wednesday, January 15 with the complainants losing thousands of dollars after willingly sending the digital currency to recipients via a Bitcoin machine in a local shopping centre.

Nanaimo RCMP Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien said in the first incident a man with a strong Asian accent proclaiming to be a police officer phoned the victim. The victim was told his identity had been compromised and the only way to correct it was to send some of his liquid assets.

Sure enough he did. A total of $13,000 worth of Bitcoin was deposited through the machine to the scammer. “The light went on for him, he realized he had been scammed,” O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW.

The second case involved a man receiving an email from a representative purporting to be from US Digital Cellular, claiming he was eligible for an $849 refund.

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The complainant phoned the number provided and was then told in order to receive the refund he had to complete a questionnaire, which advised him $4,800 was erroneously sent to him.

A request was then made to send the nearly $5,000 back to the solicitor via Bitcoin.

“He even admitted that he saw the warning signs on the machine, but he chose to overlook them,” said Cst. O’Brien. “The poor man feels absolutely ashamed, but he wanted to get this out to the public so maybe others would not fall for this same one.”

Cst. O’Brien pointed out variations of the “over-refund scam” have been around for decades. He add that reports of digital currency scams are trending upward.

“We’re going to see more of these moving forward,” Cst. O’Brien said. “Once the money is sent via Bitcoin it’s untraceable, and the scammers know that.”

Two Nanaimo men lost thousands of dollars after submitting Bitcoin to this ATM machine in a Nanaimo shopping centre on Wednesday, Jan. 15. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

With scammers regularly using email, text, phone calls and social media to lay the groundwork to fraudulently obtain money or valuables from people, Cst. O’Brien said it’s absolutely essential to know who you’re dealing with. “Do not respond to any email, any phone call unless you can verify the source – that’s the bottom line, that will keep most people safe,” said O’Brien.

A multitude of frauds are tracked by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, a collaboration between the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau.

Research shows only a small fraction of scams in the country are reported to law enforcement, Cst. O’Brien stated.”Up to the end of October of 2024 they had over $500 million of reported losses for the year and that’s with only five per cent (of complaints) ever being reported, so we’re in the multi-billion-dollar industry.”