A Guelph man is out $5,300 after falling victim to both gift card and Bitcoin scams, say Guelph police.
The victim attended the Guelph Police Service headquarters Monday. He reported he was recently contacted by someone purporting to be from Visa and requiring his assistance to catch a scammer. The victim purchased $1,300 in pre-paid Mastercard gift cards and provided the numbers to the caller.
He was later contacted again and requested to withdraw $4,000 from his bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin machine at a downtown business. The victim reported he did so as he believed he was helping catch someone who had been committing frauds.
Guelph police would like to remind the public that no police officer, government or company official will ever instruct you to purchase and send gift cards or cryptocurrency. Please be very vigilant and cautious whenever you are speaking with someone you don’t know, especially online or over the phone.
Please also seek advice from a family member, coworker, trusted friend or the Guelph Police Service at 519-824-1212 before following through on instructions received from a person that you don’t know. These crimes are nearly impossible to investigate and the odds of recovering funds is very low.
Such fraud attempts can be reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at 1-888-495-8501.
