Cyptocurrency con: Northland police urge caution after man loses life savings

Northland police are warning locals to be extra vigilant online and around cold callers. Photo / Bevan Conley

Northland police are reminding people to think twice about sharing personal information after a local unwittingly gave scammers access to his life savings.

The scam involving cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, first began to unfold when the man was contacted by callers who claimed to be cryptocurrency agents. During which, the callers praised the man's investments and encouraged him to buy more.

This eventually led to dozens of late-night phone calls from other "agents" with promises of a one-off fee to secure a refund.

The relentless calls led the man to provide them with access to his computer – a trust they abused by draining about $22,000 in savings.

Northland Constable Trae Harrison said the man's story wasn't a one-off as he had received several similar complaints recently.

scammed_OL

"A lot of this fraud consists of cybercriminals emailing, cold calling, or using Facebook messenger to convince people they have a great investment opportunity in cryptocurrency and other investments.

"These investments are falsehoods, where the victim either transfers money directly to overseas cryptocurrency wallets or they get them to launder it in another way, such as a gift card."

Harrison said the con appeared to be an evolution of other cold calling and investment opportunity scams.

"Cryptocurrencies don't have a centralised issuing or regulating authority. Instead, they use a decentralised system to record transactions and issue new units. Because of this, they're hard to trace."

People conned by scams are sometimes targeted a second time when they are contacted by people promising to recover their lost currencies, Harrison said.

"These are mostly scams. Or if they do find the money, the process to recover it will likely cost more than the initial money lost or, have a low success rate meaning the victim loses more money in the long run."

Anyone who believes they have been a victim of a crime, in person or online, should report the matter to their local police.

However, police warn prevention is the best way to keep safe because the scams are extremely complex and difficult to investigate.

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