Toronto police recover portion of $400K lost by senior in bitcoin scam

Toronto police investigators say they have recovered a portion of funds lost by a senior who fell victim to a bitcoin scam that cheated he and his wife out of $400,000.

In a news release issued Tuesday, police said the couple wanted to invest their savings and were allegedly approached online by a scammer who communicated with them over the phone.

Police say the scammer presented as "professional and knowledgeable in the field" and asked the man to invest in an online platform called "cryptos-seed.com."

The couple was then persuaded to send funds via a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange to a cryptocurrency wallet provided by the scammer, according to investigators.

Police say the man was then provided with credentials for the scam website where it appeared his investment was growing "significantly," when in fact, he had sent his money directly to the person in question.

The man eventually asked to withdraw his funds, but was met with multiple excuses and was told to invest more money or pay large fees to have the funds released, police say. 

Investigators were able to recover a "significant portion of lost funds" and return them to the couple, though the news release does not state exactly how much money was lost. 

Police say investigators are still trying to identify the suspects involved, who may be located in another country. 

Investigators are appealing to anyone who believes they may have been a victim of a similar scam to contact police. 

Tips on how to avoid being scammed 

Det. Const. Sean Vandecamp says scams like this are very common. He is urging the public to be cautious when solicited online for any investments. 

"It is not likely that the funds are recovered via cryptocurrency, that's why this is such a great success story," he said in an interview with CBC Toronto. 

It's not just crypto — a recent CBC Toronto investigation revealed that fraud reports in Ontario have skyrocketed over the last decade, with only a sliver of annual reports leading to criminal charges. Those scams include everything from Ponzi schemes, to romance scams and fraudsters selling people's houses out from under them.

Andreas Park, a professor of finance at the University of Toronto, says crypto users are particularly vulnerable because they can hold their assets in self custody and, as a result, are free to send their money to anyone they want. 

"With this great freedom that you have comes the responsibility — and the problem — that if you send it to the wrong person, it's just gone," he said.

Park says the best way to combat the problem is with education around crypto scams. 

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," he said. 

Vanessa Iafolla, a fraud prevention consultant and instructor at Wilfred Laurier University, agrees. 

"Cryptocurrency is designed to be anonymous. It's designed to be something that's meant to be difficult to trace," she said. 

"If you're not familiar with cryptocurrency, don't touch it. Educate yourself, speak with someone who's part of a legitimate organization." 

Park urges people to consider holding their assets with a registered investment company like Wealthsimple. If people decide to keep their assets in their own digital wallet, he encourages them to use what's known as a "hard wallet" — a psychical device that stores a person's private keys and allows them to securely access their cryptocurrency. 

Meanwhile, the Ontario Securities Commission has a list of registered and approved cryptocurrency exchanges that can be found on its website.