Bitcoin Forum

There is bitcoin scam happened in Canad, the local store owner in Winnipeg from Canada reported that there is a bitcoin scam happened on some of his customers.

This bitcoin scam is targetting the residents of Winnipeg Canada. The good thing here is that the local grocery store owner already warned that his customers were the victims of the bitcoin scam.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/another-bitcoin-scam-hits-canada

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There are so many scammers in this world, we should be careful when there are someone messages us out of nowhere if you don't know the number just ignore it especially when it is about money. You don't have to pay attention to those text messages. Always assess the situation if needed.

Bitcoin scam or ponzi scam ? I have seen numerous scams that directly involved in participation in a form of investment that pay in bitcoin being term as bitcoin scam but I do not think this is right. It is a ponzi scheme that collect money in bitcoin. I ready the article and I was perturbed by how people lose their money. This is the reason why it is always advisable to seek for answers before given up your money for an investment. I could you give all your life savings up for an investment that you have little knowledge about. It is very dangerous.

This is awful thing to do. Bitcoin is very popular these days and I believe people who are new to industry making such investments without even knowing what they are actually doing!

What I mean is, all they know is bitcoin being good investment for the future, it can give you profits, quick rich stuff etc etc. you name it!! This is because of lack of knowledge and superficially luring of profit.

Those people are also half accomplice in this since they could have listened or read about the scheme before investing all their life savings!!!!

People should be smart enough before sending any money to unknown entities. They are also driven by the idea of get-rich-quick-scheme the reason why some are lured from it. But they have heard a lot of crypto scams already, so they should really be careful in dealing with this too-good-to-be-true offers.

That should be the thing.  But, sadly people always fall for this scam.  Probably greed numbs their mind into functioning.  Only thinking about the possible money they will get on this scam scheme.  I have known lots of people who always fall for this kind of scam.  Most of them are from the Multi-level marketing industry since most of these scam pretend to be this kind of scheme but actually an HYIP or pyramid scam.

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Sadly the article is too vague, not mentioning the name of the company involved in that scam.

A lot of people go on about scammers due to lack of information. Of course, scammers offer very good conditions, and really dreams of big incomes overshadow common sense. But a person who has encountered very little cryptocurrency can make a lot of mistakes. you can not transfer cryptocurrency to anyone, especially when very dubious conditions are offered and at the same time the addressee cannot be identified. it’s possible to find out the name and surname of the payee using a bank card, and when transferring Bitcoin, only the address is indicated and no one knows who the payee will be.

The news is misleading, that would ruin bitcoin's reputation because in the first place bitcoin is not scam.
Why these media are dragging bitcoin into negative news, they could have make a different title like "Ponzi scam using bitcoin" or anything but not this title posted by OP. Scams are everywhere, people has to be educated to prevent themselves into falling this kind of scam, that's the only weapon we need to have so these scammers will not succeed.

TBH, the title of the thread was really catchy that's why I opened this thread, but misleading as I said.

Almost every country and society now have forum or community that represent cryptocurrency, they disseminate information that are relevant and current. They should do enough to protect every crypto investors within their area. Such news should quickly get to the media to prevent loss from owners and manage the negative effect of such success scam. We need to do everything to protect the good purpose of the space and prevent government reaction if it persists.

Scammers are really flexible and they can attack each and every country that they want to target. Unfortunately, in this news, they attacked Canada using fake bitcoin investments and victims are really not aware about scammers. Everyone of us should be aware and become more careful the next time that we encounter that circumstances.

Never trust easily as people nowadays can betray you, a simple information about yourself makes them access your accounts.You need to give importance about your assets.

Canadian authority should become more alerted so that they will focus on keeping the safety of all cryptocurrency users, especially those who use bitcoin in their investments. It is not safe nowadays and you need to improve your account's security.

I hate when they call it "bitcoin scam" it should be "fake Bitcoin investments". Well, this is not new, fake investments are always there trying to fool some people, especially to those who are a newbie in cryptocurrency. In my country they exist they have different styles. Some do it through fake websites, in social media (they will keep approaching you using different accounts offering some scam), Also, some have the guts to do some fake trading training and they will encourage everyone to invest with them I hope they will get punished.


Yeah, it is pretty misleading. If they used the dollar to scam people, so its a "dollar scam?"  I am pretty sure some of it is just spreading this news to FUD.

I think this has nothing to do with Bitcoin at all but the scam of this people are trying to make. CRA is Canada's version of IRS in America and I've seen a lot of videos in Youtube on how the scam will go down. Usually they will receive a phone call and they will say to that person that they still owe money and they need to pay it in some sort of gift card from the Apple store or in Walmart which I think isn't really a realistic ask by a government agency to pay. Bitcoin is the same why would a government agency pay for something what you owe in a currency not under them as a legal tender? It doesn't make any sense at all and only gullible people can be fooled by that type of scams.

It is a scam that is running for the past two years, what the scammers does it convince the end user that they are calling from the government and they need to move their money from their accounts through BTCitcoin ATM then ask to forward the private keys. There were a few scam call centers that are busted and when i reviewed their modus operandi it was mind boggling that people would trust random phone calls as government officials without fact checking.

Scam will never end but scammers choose bitcoin as a easy payment methods. This is advantage for scammers that no one will able to find out them and funds aren't reversible. But it doesn't mean bitcoin is related with such as scam. Anyone shouldn't recognise with such as phone calls or messages where asking to invest your bitcoin or real money. They will offer a very greedy plan, of course this kind of scam happening with fiat money as well. But fortunately bitcoin scams highlighting since this is virtual currency and there is very less chance to trap scammers. Just we have to be careful about such as scam and don't fall into scammers trap.

There are a lot of professional scammers who are really good at fooling people, especially if you're not knowledgeable on how they do their scams. The good thing to do is to make yourself aware about your accounts, you should improve your security every month as soon as possible. Never trust easily, don't send money no matter how small or big it is. If you don't know personally the people you are sending your assets, then don't. You should look for their credentials if they are a good tool to use for bitcoin investments because some people are really ignorant about how scammers act. You should be vigilant in the things that can occur in a cryptocurrency investments to keep your assets from danger.

the original article isn't.

that's the name of the store owner, the name of the store, and even the location of the store.

A fake Bitcoin investments = scam. News outlets need to save space in the headlines, and "Bitcoin scams" has fewer characters, so...

Is a ponzi scheme and not another bitcoin scam per se. Even others have been doing this from ages and it's called investment ponzi scheme, social medias have been engulf with this type of scam and not only happening in Canada. Although, the alarm was sounded and they should yield to the advise the owner of the bitcoin ATM gave to avoid some bad stories. People will continue to fall into this ponzi scheme because of their greediness, no amount of warning you can give to greedy individuals that will yield good results. Let us be content with the little we have.

When I'm reading the title of this topic I though another BTC exchange in Canada has become victim of a scam. Thankfully its just a minor scamming incident but still, this kind of scenario is not good especially to those countries that have lots of people who support Bitcoin. Honestly, if that scam hasn't yet discovered by the concerned people, it might affect a thousand innocent holders in that Country. then the worst thing is they might banned the use of BTC their.

Scammers are always looking for a way to rob people, so we have to be cautious. It's sweet that a community in Winnipeg is conscious and does its best to warn people. Unfortunately, there is not much data to understand what's really going on and why people fall for it. From that story of a woman crying and saying she has kids it sounds like blackmail to me, but I don't know. I hope they catch the scammers and reveal their methods. It would be helpful if the victims decided to speak up. I've found some information that these criminal might be posing as the police. So it does involve threats if not blackmail: https://micky.com.au/criminals-behind-two-canadian-bitcoin-scams-pose-as-police/.

That is the event where scams happen, since people who are victims transact on that atm machine that is located on that store.  Sadly there is no mention about the possible identity of the scammer.


I think it is ok since the transaction used is Bitcoin, and that is the label of the asset that was lost on the victim.  And yes, in news or article the shorter the message on the headline with the same impact is always better.

There will be lots of scams going on like this too so we should be careful. Bad guys always take every opportunity they can to steal our money. Grocery stores in Canada accept bitcoin payments. This proves Bitcoin is very popular in this country.

No, it's not a Ponzi and rather than making four lines of useless shitposts spend a minute reading the article.


People, stop with the greed and the investments and Ponzi schemes:
Victims are scammed by people calling them and telling them they have debts to pay and they should pay it via a BTC atm. Simple!

The bad thing about this is the reaction of the owner, although he tried to prevent a lot of people from paying to scammers, his decision is:

I honestly don't understand how people can still fall for it. Honestly, even if the phone call indicates something similar to an authority asking for payment, I'd rather offend the guy and then clear up the situation. I'm pretty sure they themselves know about the fraudulent spread of scams here and there, and trying to make sure of something first and foremost is pretty understandable. Especially if they are asking for a large amount of money, or even a small amount, but for longer terms.

It is still related to Bitcoin since firstly, they use the name of Bitcoin "investments". For all we know, those being asked are actually misunderstanding Bitcoin as a sort of "company" that is asking for investment. The details of the "investment" wasn't really released so I just assumed, but there's still a chance after all. Ignorance is something we all know about, and something abundant most of the time whenever someone gets scammed.

I know that, but not all people understand what is bitcoin, what is cryptocurrency, etc. so it is better to be more precise on headline. I am referring to those individuals that has a little knowledge about it. It could be misinterpret or mislead them to think that bitcoin is scam for real. I know ignorance of something is their fault for not being too curious or educate themselves about it, but we need those newbies to spread adoption, that is why adoption is very slow because most of the people are thinking it the wrong way in what they heard from news and they don't bother to read the whole article just headlines.

That reply was not for the case brought by OP or written on the article.  It was a reply on this post by Twinkledoe :

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Well, probably the owner does not want his store to be dragged on the issue or he can't bear to see people falling to this threat/fraud/extortion scam.  It is a pain to hear about a crime that happen within the vicinity of your store.  I would do the same thing just to have peace of mind.

Calm Down

This is not another scam this is the same scam. You can find an article from nearly a year ago about the same thing. i live a few hours away from Winnipeg and likely know the owner of the BTC ATM at that location. This comes up constantly it is no differnt than the scams involving Gift cards or mailing/couriering cash.

You receive a call from someone claiming to be a Utility provide, Governement agency, or Law enforcement.
They tell you that you owe them money or they will cut you off and sue, or imprison you, take away your children... whatever it takes.
They tell you go to this ATM and buy and send to this address.

Story as old as time. So again it's just a misleading article by cointelegraph who really should put some effort into being a crypto news source.

Shame they should know better and be able to write a real article instead of copy/paste/snip an article from a mainstream news source.

Im trying to figure out on whats CRA, i thought it was just an another ponzi scheme or what since it doesnt mention on what kind of scam is happening and i thought it was just an another ponzi or what.
So CRA means Canada Revenue Agency  ( https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html ) .I dont know why people do easily fall into this kind of trap and been wondering on why they arent too
cautious on such manner.In the first place it would really be suspicious that they would call you out or sent out be some message telling about something just for you to make any bitcoin transactions?
Scammers would continue to exist if there are people that can really be easily fooled.

May some news title is somewhat misleading but if you will read the entire content of the said accusation it will lighten you up the real scenario and that not it makes Bitcoin as a scam but just people used that name to scam innocent people.
TBH, we can't wipe these scammers, they are spreading and getting stronger as they know that they could still scam people. We all ain't learn that already, scammers are smarter now and they took the advantage into every opportunity they see. And that is why I didn't give full trust to anyone I meet online for just once or having a deal with them, especially about investment for I was thinking about scamming.

I agree with you, there are many scammers and more and more people have intentions of joining scam to deprive people of their hard earned money... The only way to beat them is to stay far ahead of them by staying off gread becuse they will keep rolling more and more deadly strategies that would seems real to victims

Using bitcoin as a front on scamming people always been a problem ever since and there always been a victim as well. Even in my country some low-life scammers using it as a front of investment ponzi scams targeting people who don't have knowledge about bitcoin and just joining because of flowering  ROIs that they will get if they invest. And that's not bitcoin at all, bitcoin will always be a victim in this kind of schemes and bitcoin always gettting bad names on news reports. I hope people will do more research before engaging this type of fraudelent acts.

Whatever happens, the best thing to do right now is to secure all of our holdings whether it is Bitcoin or other coins at all times so that we will not be victims of scams like this.

Ignorance is bad for the people but in times like this where money is related, sometimes ignorance can have some benefits such as this. If you ignore a text especially if you received it from a random stranger out of nowhere then it will prevent you from getting scammed. Being knowledgeable in things like this especially into how scammers scam people can help you too. If there is money related then ask some of the experts or somebody who you know that is expert on that thing.

Exactly, the scams and schemes have been there for a long time, then how come this people still fall for those formulaic and by the book schemes? It is because they never learn or a better wording is that they do not want to learn, people is the problem now, back then it was those scammers who we are afraid because there still unknown schemes but now that technology is in every household, I do think that the fault is in the people, I get that the elderly population will be the biggest target but don't you think it is the responsibility of the young people to help them not get goofed by these low-life.

I think I've seen this kind of scam before not particular to Canada but in other countries and also happened locally. The style is like those scam phone calls that has been posted in YouTube years ago and also keeps on coming even up to now with almost the same reasoning.

Probably the scammer bought or collected phone numbers of a victim from a database that he has been monitoring. The authorities could easily catch and trace the numbers if the victims will cooperate to them but I think those scammers are operating offshore.

Unfortunately, on the web it is easy to find scams on bitcoin, whether it is a ponzi or pyramid scheme, many are attracted by high percentages of profit and this is how you fall into the trap, it would be useful to always share any and potential scams in order to protect us all from scams or maybe there is already a thread where they talk about it but I don't know and I apologize

Not really. The case depicted here consists in luring people to a Bitcoin ATM machine somewhere, in order for them to make a payment for a swindle of some sort made by a guy impersonating an entity that requires BTC to avoid an alleged bigger fine. The whole process is a fraud, and the grocery is simply a place that holds an ATM within to perform the payment. The existence of a Bitcoin ATM is the cornerstone here.

I don't get it. According to the article, they are getting scammed because they are buying on the phone? How can people fall for that when they don't know who they are dealing with and especially on the phone where there's not much information you can take? Are those residents that stupid? or there's a catch to that? How can people just fall for that Bitcoin machine?

The scams will always happen out there, and we must be careful from the scammers. Many new ways will be used by scammers to trick people's money, and now, bitcoin becomes popular, there will be many people who want to invest in bitcoin, and they can be a new target from the scammers. But if people can spend their time for a while to learn about investing in bitcoin, I think they can prevent the scam itself and know if they find something weird from anywhere.

Here are some other scams in Canada about crypto currencies

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bitcoin-fraudster-steal-money-1.5345279

and there are others that hits the country ps://www.coindesk.com/canadians-charged-for-220000-bitcoin-scam-on-twitter

and also some teenagers case about a multi million dollar

https://cointelegraph.com/news/canadian-teen-charged-for-50-million-cryptocurrency-theft

Thanks for the share mate but i think this is getting serious problem in Canada now and government must take action before the whole crypto collapse in that region.

First I don’t see the reason why I should be investing in something or sending money to people when I don’t know who they are, and what they are up to. It doesn’t make any sense. When I see people making these mistakes it always annoys me, because I don’t know why they are investing in something that they nothing about. Why not just relax and ask questions? I don’t see anything wrong with asking people some questions.

Just like one of my friends that fell for one of these scams where they will tell you to be referring people and promising you huge amount of money lol. He kept doing this until we met and he told and I had to let him know that it was a scam. And if he never told me, he wouldn’t have known what it is. So it’s always good ask questions or maybe do a research.

People can really be classified into 2 sides neither one who is fully aware because of his experience and one who do just make careless actions just because he do let his/her emotion set in.
Yeah its annoying but there are really people who do really blindly make these investments without minding if its a legit one or not.They should always put up into their damn minds that
easy money doesnt exist into this world and if someone do reaches you randomly and tell you about making big profits or quick bucks then better to already have some doubts.

It's sad that some people use bitcoin which is increasingly popular to commit fraud. We really have to be more careful of
offers of people who are not known, especially related ponzi scheme. Lots of people are interested in instant profit, but this
is it cause us to be easily fooled. I am really concerned about the scams incident in Canada, hopefully we can all increase
our awareness to avoid scammers.

The articles seems lacking of further specifications and I need to dig few more details from another source about why these people got easily scammed, and I think this isn't about ponzi scheme, but rather a direct scam that will fool the people into believing that these scammers are part of the authorities and thus charging them to pay for taxes through ATM as the article mentioned about the CRA.

I think it's unwise not to consult first with the office before paying for these charges, and the people didn't have doubts why the authorities let them pay with Bitcoin and not with their national currency.

Not just in Canada but also here in our country. I have a friend who actually been scammed by those reputable persons, degree holders and convinced my friend to invest in bitcoin. They have fake president, fake company and fake positions. Since those persons have educational attainment, scammers nowadays are just as smart as what we do not expect they are.
 
 Good thing, the store owner in Canada warned his customer about that bitcoin investment scam. As we all know, not all knew about their trick and there will be the one who may be fall for this.

Because of it's popularities, scammers loves to join the ride and tricked people who are not well aware.

Investing doesn't implied alone with the money that you  use, but you also need to invest with  time,
letting yourself knowledgeable with the investment you take.


The best thing there is the owner wanted to alarmed the people around him about this scam, it will be
very useful to everyone in avoiding such schemes.

Educated  and awareness are two of the traits that holders of Bitcoin should have this is to avoid getting scam, scam are everywhere, you can find it almost everywhere, one of the existing scam right now are the Bitcoin Giveaways by hacked account on Youtube and telegram channels, people should read a lot of what's happening in the community, remember there is no charge back in Cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is digital have function as digital currency payment and not have way to be scam, just some one try to make bad image of bitcoin to give negative reputation for all investor keep away and left bitcoin as payment or investment. How many time bitcoin called with scam because many investor try to manipulated other people with bitcoin named.

Fortunately scams are not just limited to Bitcoin, I have seen scams on Youtube where scammers from India direct old people to Wallmart to buy vouchers to pay for "fake" IT support over the phone. They infect the machine with a bogus virus or fake popup screen and then they demand payment for fixing this problem.

I guess what is happening here is something similar, the only difference is that the scammer is switching to bitcoins, because they know it is more difficult or near impossible to stop or to reverse this kind of transaction.  >:(

The white hat hackers in our community should reach out to these victims to get more information about this and then they have to teach these people a lesson.  ???

Some random guy calls you on the phone and asks you to invest your money,promising insane returns...
Who would fall for this shit?This is obviously one of the really dumb scams that are so dumb,I can't even understand why people fall for it.
Having to transfer money to Bitcoin regarding CPA?What is CRA?I guess it's some Canadian thing.
Scammers are often using the legitimacy of some well known and established compnies,or even government institutions,in order to execute their scams.No legit company or government organization in the world will force your to exchange your money for BTC and send BTC instead of fiat money.This is still a pretty stupid scam.

Those who fall for this scam does not have the idea of what bitcoin really is, but the writer who made the article for sure knows what is bitcoin, so for me, the title was really mislead and it would again mislead people who has no enough knowledge about bitcoin, I guess their first impression when reading the title would be "BITCOIN IS A SCAM, AND IT HITS CANADA".


There should be a responsible journalism if that's the right term to call it, it must not be misleading and the title alone would already hint the real story not to only catch the attention of the readers.

It is no surprise because money is to attract more people to comes. But unfortunately, people don't search for more information about the project, the owner, or the investment type, so they select a random project to invest their money. I guess the scammers will use the other trick to get the money, and sometimes, they use the old trick, which still can be used to trick new people. People need to educate themselves before they decide to invest in some projects to prevent scammers.

We must understand that scam has been with human and this will not end. Scammers always take an opportunity to operate, they new investors and traders including holders will one time or the other make use of the machine and if they see such will think it legit investment platform. Really appreciate those in authority who stood against such act in a country like Canada. Learning about some of these scam tactics will help secure our holdings and not fall guilty to scam, we should investigate every source before making any investment with them.

You are right, scams will stay and scammers will always find a way to scam people.

Maybe the government will learn and see that the crypto market is getting bigger already, and the only way to protect people from crypto is by regulating the market, that way, the market will gain confidence from investors and the government has a big role of making a drive in educating people about crypto.

Those who fall from scams are those who aren't aware that bitcoin are also used in scamming, if the market is regulated, it would be easier for them to check from the authorities and verify if such investment is legit or not.

This is never ending business since as long as there are money ready to be risk for sure many scammers will find an innovative ways to catch it, that's why sometimes I think it's better to teach this lesson on schools so that the new grown up will be aware about scams so that they will not fall on that schemes. This scamming incident is so alarming and government should impose a strict penalty to warn those scammers to continue this act.

That's true, we all know that as long as there is money involved, scammers will always there waiting for a great chance of having a victim. People should know that it is important to be aware and stay calm in this kind of situation, trusting no one is a must until proven every necessary information in every transaction to avoid scammers.

Scams are everywhere. Its even in my local town where a local lawyer also plays a role in such a scam.  I tried warning few friends not to engage in it since they don't have the coins in their wallet, they ignored me for it because the lawyer is just reputable than me.

The wise thing to do is just ignore everything unless you are the one initiating the investment. Its always a good to keep in mind that if private key isn't in your wallet then its not your coin.

There's always a penalty for every crime committed, but would we rather like to see the preventive measures than the penalty?
For me, I think they (government) need to focus on the preventive measures so the scammers would fail.

It only shows that even how reputable a person is, whether he is a lawyer a professional, we should not trust so easily.

This is the main reason why there are so many people who are easy to be a target of a scam or any kind of suspicious activities, they prefer to engage anytime as long as they heard a huge return or anything that is really impossible.

That's sad reality that our friends will not listen to us once we warned them about the upcoming scam will be happen on  the ponzi platform that they are investing, they will just easily believe since there is a professional person behind on the that scheme.

And I think the best thing you can do is to report them on proper authorities since once the government will look on it for sure the one who operate the company will subject on investigation and will be jailed once proven that they are running a scam business.

No, I think the old tricks will still work to get the new people who don't have much info about crypto. They can send the money to the scammers without they realize that it is just an old trick. But if the old trick does not work, they modify the trick to get the new trick or create another new trick.

Yes, money can be a good reason to attract new people who needed money. They will search for people who want to make money and trick them into spending their money to the scammers. We need to be careful before we decide something.

If this scenario of bitcoin as a tool to scam people continues, we cannot develop and implement bitcoin adoption further to the world. Each time you will ask a person about bitcoin, the very first thing that will come to their mind is that it was a scam. Imagine if you are an online seller to an e-commerce application. Despite having many 5 star reviews, if you receive even one 1 star feedback, it could affect the rest of your future customers.

I'm not saying that bitcoin should be perfect but if we really want to help bitcoin develop, we should be responsible to use it with legal transactions and prevent those who are using it for fraud.

Knowing that they have posted some posters, I rather take it out and throw it in the garbage.

Yeah, that's for sure. But we don't have to become a victim before we realize that we should always be careful in everything we do especially when it involves money.

This isn't the first time that there had been a bitcoin scam. And there are tons of articles and news online, and even in televisions reminding us to be cautious and not trust easily what we read or receive (whether text, calls, or emails) unless we're certain that it came from someone we know. Hence, we should refuse to be their victim.

Scammers and frauds are smart, but we should be smarter. And by smarter, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to know technical things. You just have to be careful and analytical, and having a "think before you click" mindset before trusting anything or anyone.

Scams have been and will be, and we must be careful and pragmatic. Trust only proven resources and platforms.

"Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, allege that fraudsters impersonated the local authorities in order to extort Bitcoin from their victims." - another example when you should not rush and trust everyone. Scammers are everywhere!

I think the only way to reduce the scams in any sector whatsoever even crypto is for the continued publicity for people to know because unscrupulous individuals will still be involved no matter how secure the space is. But with adequate publicity and notices just like as it's being done bye the shop owner in Winnipeg it tends 2 reduce the number of victims that would have initially pain been exposed.