The Bitcoin ATM machine positioned at Woodgrove Centre. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Ian Holmes

Bitcoin scam

‘The poor man feels absolutely ashamed:’ Bitcoin scams cost Nanaimo men thousands

Jan 17, 2025 | 11:17 AM

NANAIMO — Two unrelated Bitcoin scams involving significant volumes of digital currency burned a pair of local men.

Nanaimo RCMP say both incidents occurred on Wednesday, Jan. 15 with the complainants losing thousands of dollars after willingly sending the digital currency to recipients via the Woodgrove Centre Bitcoin machine.

RCMP Res. Cst. Gary O’Brien said in the first incident a man with a strong Asian accent proclaiming to be a police officer phoned the victim.

“…stating that his money had been stolen, his identity had been compromised and the only way to correct this was that he had to send a portion of his liquid assets, and sure enough he did.”

A total of $13,000 worth of Bitcoin was deposited through the machine to the scammer.

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“The light went on for him, he realized he had been scammed,” O’Brien told NanaimoNewsNOW.

The second case involved a man receiving an email from a representative purporting to be from US Digital Cellular, claiming he was eligible for an $849 refund.

The complainant phoned the number provided and was then told in order to receive the refund he had to complete a questionnaire, which advised him $4,800 was erroneously sent to him.

A request was then made to send the nearly $5,000 back to the solicitor via Bitcoin.

“He even admitted that he saw the warning signs on the machine, but he chose to overlook them. The poor man he feels absolutely ashamed, but he wanted to get this out to the public so maybe others would not fall for this same one.”

Cst. O’Brien pointed out variations of the “over-refund scam” have been around for decades.

Reports of digital currency scams in the Nanaimo area and abroad are trending upward, Cst. O’Brien said.

“We’re going to see more of these moving forward,” Cst. O’Brien said. “Once the money is sent via Bitcoin it’s untraceable, and the scammers know that.”

Two Nanaimo men lost thousands of dollars after submitting Bitcoin to this ATM machine near entrance no. 2 at Woodgrove Centre on Wednesday, Jan. 15. (Ian Holmes/NanaimoNewsNOW)

With scammers regularly using email, text, phone calls and social media to lay the groundwork to fraudulently obtain money or valuables from people, Cst. O’Brien said it’s absolutely essential to know who you’re dealing with.

“Do not respond to any email, any phone call unless you can verify the source – that’s the bottom line, that will keep most people safe.”

A multitude of frauds are tracked by the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, a collaboration between the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and Competition Bureau.

Research shows only a small fraction of scams in the country are reported to law enforcement, Cst. O’Brien stated.

“Up to the end of October of 2024 they had over $500 million of reported losses for the year and that’s with only five per cent (of complaints) ever being reported, so we’re in the multi-billion-dollar industry.”

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