Yellowknife woman warns of cryptocurrency scams after losing $26K
A Yellowknife woman says she is out $26,000 due to a cryptocurrency scam that involved a fake news story.
The woman said she wanted to tell her story to warn others of the kinds of deceptive fraudulent activities that exist online and how scammers are impersonating trusted institutions like news outlets to lure unsuspecting victims.
N.W.T. residents have reported losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to various scams over the past four years, with a particularly large jump in 2021 amid the pandemic.
Jeff Horncastle, client and communications outreach officer for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, told CBC News in an earlier interview that since COVID-19, there has been an increase in financial crimes, particularly fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.
In another earlier interview with CBC News, Kwasi Boakye-Boateng, a research associate with the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity, said artificial intelligence has also made scams harder to detect.
CBC News granted the woman confidentiality, due to concern she could be targeted in the future by more scammers.
The woman says she saw — and is still seeing — a number of what she now knows are fake news stories pretending to be from CBC, often featuring someone talking about investing in a cryptocurrency scheme.
Last summer, she saw many of them featuring fake interviews with former prime minister Justin Trudeau, former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, encouraging people to invest in cryptocurrency. She said she was skeptical until she saw Singh supposedly interviewed in one around July 2024, and then decided to reach out to the featured company.
A spokesperson for CBC News said there has been an alarming rise in fake ads and news stories appearing online and on social media platforms.
"CBC is committed to fighting disinformation, which deliberately misleads the public and puts at risk their trust in legitimate media outlets," wrote Kerry Kelly.
"This is an increasingly difficult task however, hindered by the rise in AI-generated disinformation and the prevalence of fake ads found on social media platforms."
The woman said when she first got in touch with the company, called Finlake Ltd., they gained her trust.
CBC News found a Facebook page for Finlake Ltd. and attempted to email and call them for comment. The number was not in service and the email was undeliverable.
The woman said she started by investing just $350, because she is an immigrant who wanted to send money to friends and family back home.
"At the beginning, whoever talked to me was very, very friendly, very easy to communicate [with] and giving lots of information and giving confidence," she said.
"I even asked him directly, 'Is this company real?' And he said, 'Yes, yes I'm working here.'"
But quickly the company began asking her to increase the amount of money she was investing.
"Then he told me just $350 will not work, I will have to put more [in] to get more benefit out of it," she said.
Madam, as long as you don't wanna speak to me — it is still my duty as risk officer to save the trading account. You have [$36,000] that are under the risk due to unpredictable geopolitical environment
The red flags
They communicated often through WhatsApp, and occasionally on the phone.
There were some red flags, she said — the crypto company tried to help her create a wallet, a software that stores the virtual currency that the user invests in. There are several legitimate companies that offer this service, but none would work with this particular company.
"So I was a little suspicious about it," she said.
Eventually, a wallet was set up for her by the man working for the cryptocurrency company she was investing in.
To get the currency, she needed to purchase it through her bank. She sent an eTransfer from her Scotiabank account, but when she made the request, she was asked to come into the bank to meet with the manager. The request, she explained, set off some sort of security alert.
She said the bank manager had security personnel on the phone and was talking to them on a headset, and was relaying what they would say to her.
What the manager said was that they didn't recommend she do this, but she said they wouldn't tell her why, leaving her confused.
"They did not say, 'This is fraud, you shouldn't,'" she said.
She told the bank to allow the transactions.
"That is where I made a mistake then, I realize that, but however, my concern is if there are banks where we trust and put money in, they should also advise us that this is the case, you might not know but we are telling you that."
A spokesperson for Scotiabank sent an emailed statement in response to questions on its policy informing clients of suspected fraud.
"Scotiabank takes cases of fraud seriously and continues to educate clients to take precautions when being asked to transfer funds to ensure they are dealing with a legitimate source," wrote Katie Raskina.
"We advise clients to never share passwords, authorize unknown or unexpected requests, or grant account access to any individual, including family or friends and to double check before acting on messages or requests that do not align to regular or expected dealings with the Bank."
Pushy messages
Eventually, the woman had invested thousands of dollars, but the people involved said it wasn't enough money and that her account was at risk of collapse if she didn't invest more.
In her report to the RCMP she detailed some of the messages she received.
"Madam, as long as you don't wanna speak to me — it is still my duty as risk officer to save the trading account. You have [$36,000] that are under the risk due to unpredictable geopolitical environment," the message from the crypto investor read, referencing the amount in her account that had purportedly grown from the $26,000 she invested.
"You can think all you want, but with all the respect it's a non-sense to say goodbye to 36k because you are busy."
The messages got more pushy.
"I don't expect anything from you, just stop treating me like I am harassing you when I am trying to help."
"We need extra 4500$ into your portfolio to maintain the temporary drawdown cause by the Middle-east escalation. Those types of things happen.
"You must be extremely rich to treat your $36,000 so nonchalantly."
In October 2024, communication stopped and her account and wallet, stopped functioning.
She said she's more or less accepted that the money is gone, although she said she has reported the incident to the RCMP and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
The RCMP confirmed by email that it has an active investigation into a cryptocurrency scam of this amount that was reported on Feb. 19.
How to avoid
Scotiabank's spokesperson also sent a link for how to avoid cryptocurrency scams.
"Cryptocurrencies are legal, but they're not generally overseen by governments, nor are they centralized. Individuals or organizations can access cryptocurrency easily and make transactions while hiding their identities, making it an extremely vulnerable tool for cybercrime," the website reads.
The website encourages people investing in crypto to use reputable platforms, such as apps that can be downloaded on Apple or Google Play. It also says to watch out for parties that promise large returns and to beware of messages that are urgent in tone.
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