Canadian police have warned that scammers are impersonating the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fraudulent crypto recovery schemes targeting people who previously lost funds in earlier scams.
The alert follows a case in Nanaimo, British Columbia, where a resident who had already lost C$5,000 in a crypto job scam was later approached by someone claiming they could recover the stolen funds.
“The RCMP does not contact individuals about discovered cryptocurrency accounts, partner with private firms to recover lost funds, or request any form of payment to investigate fraud,”
Said Reserve Constable, Gary O’Brien of the Nanaimo RCMP.
The victim initially received an unsolicited text message offering a remote trading job that required depositing cryptocurrency through an ATM kiosk before the supposed employer disappeared.
Months later, the same person responded to what appeared to be an RCMP public notice online and was contacted by a man posing as a lawyer claiming he had located C$60,000 in crypto profits linked to the victim.
Security experts say these “fake recovery service scams” often target individuals who already lost money, using information gathered during earlier fraud schemes to identify vulnerable victims.
Authorities urged residents to be cautious about unsolicited job offers or recovery services involving cryptocurrency and to verify the credentials of anyone claiming to represent law enforcement or legal firms.