Scams know no political boundaries and while Scamicide focuses on scams affecting Americans, many of the scams and identity theft threats I discuss are found throughout the world.  Recently my attention was drawn to a whistleblower in Ukraine who contacted Radio-Canada to expose the call centers in Ukraine preying upon Canadians through a variety of investment scams, often involving cryptocurrencies.  He described how the scammers who work in large call centers take their time to develop relationships with their victims and gain their trust over time before luring them into phony, worthless investments.  This tactic is often called “pig butchering” and long-time Scamicide readers will recognize it from many previous Scams of the day.

According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFTC), Canadians lost more than 300 million dollars to investment scams in 2023 with half of that amount related to cryptocurrency scams.  Even worse, the CAFTC believes that this number is drastically lower than the amount actually lost due to its estimate that as little as 5% of investment scam victims ever report being scammed.  The FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report indicates that the countries with the largest number of scam victims are the United States followed by the United Kingdom.  However, Canada, with a much lower population than those countries is in third place with reported scams 400% greater than Germany, Australia and France.

The whistleblower alleges that Ukrainian scammers target Canadians because they are easy targets, friendly, open to other cultures with significant savings.  He also believes that Canada fails to actively investigate and prosecute scammers.

TIPS

Whether or not the Canadian government takes a more proactive position in protecting its citizens from being scammed, the best place to find a helping hand to help you avoid scams is at the end of your own arm.

Before investing with anyone, you should investigate the person offering to sell you the investment.

As for Cryptocurrency investing, it is important to remember that you should never  invest in something that you do not completely understand.  This was a mistake that many of Bernie Madoff’s victims made.  Cryptocurrency scams quite often involve complicated language and investment terms that are purposefully unclear in an effort to confuse potential investors from understanding the real facts. You also may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website at www.investor.gov.  Scammers can be very convincing and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours. Additionally, investing with someone merely because you share the same heritage, nationality, religion or any other affinity is something you should avoid.  Having the same person advise the investment and control the investment is a common thread among Ponzi schemers because it enables them to falsify documents to make the investment look profitable. Generally, for additional security it is desirable to have a separate broker-dealer act as custodian for investments chosen by an investment adviser.

For detailed information about cryptocurrency scams and how to avoid them check out this link from the FTC https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-cryptocurrency-and-scams#scams

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