A new cryptocurrency scam has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to many Canadians and Americans, the Nova Scotia Securities Commission warned Monday.
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The modus operandi of this scheme called “pig butchering” aims first and foremost to develop a bond of trust with the victim. The latter is first solicited by SMS, email, or on social networks.
Once the relationship is well underway, the scammer persuades the victim to invest in cryptocurrency. After some time, he sends her a fake “account statement” showing impressive profits. This part of the scheme is called “fattening the pig” and aims to convince the victim to invest even more money.
When the victim tries to withdraw money from their crypto account, the scammer tells them that they have to pay taxes or fees to complete this transaction, but ends up disappearing.
In addition, the scammer manages to get access to the victim’s banking data by asking him to install commercial applications, which will allow him to steal even more money from the victim.
Eventually the scam ends as the scammer impersonates another person and tells her that she can get her money back if she pays a fee. “This is known as a clawback scam and revictimizes the original victim,” the Nova Scotia Securities Commission said in a statement.
In the majority of cases, victims of this type of fraud never get their money back.
“While there are always scammers inventing new schemes, these so-called ‘pig butchering’ scams involving cryptocurrency assets have become widespread and claim many victims, many with very high losses. important,” said Commission President Paul Radford.
The latter also recalled that more than a billion dollars have been lost in this type of scam in North America since 2021.
The Nova Scotia Securities Commission added that the best way to protect yourself once morest this type of scam is to know how to recognize them in order to avoid them.
