An Ontarian misplaced about $215,000 after attempting to cope with an inflated utilities invoice that ended up being fraudulent and being advised to make cryptocurrency transactions to unravel the issue, provincial police say.
South Bruce Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say they had been dispatched to a house in the Municipality of Huron-Kinloss on Sunday after a resident reported falling sufferer to a fraud.
Police say the sufferer acquired a invoice claiming to be from a utilities firm that listed the next value than regular.
“By way of dialog with a consultant, the sufferer was led to consider that there was a processing error and was instructed to make cryptocurrency transactions to rectify the problems,” the discharge reads.
Police say the entire interplay was fraudulent however didn’t present additional particulars concerning the scam.
South Bruce OPP Crime Unit has since taken over the investigation.
Provincial police warn residents to be cautious when “participating in digital forex transactions and investments,” noting scammers have a tendency to make use of fraudulent paperwork marked with professional logos and wording that may lead victims to supply private data—like banking particulars—below the belief they’re talking with the precise supply.
They add that anybody who receives suspicious documentation to first contact the corporate or monetary establishment in particular person or via a telephone quantity you understand to be theirs. The contact data listed on the doc could possibly be fraudulent, OPP say.
Police are asking anybody with extra data to contact investigators.
