A fraud victim in Winnipeg, Canada has lost more than $168,000 to a digital currency scam. The clincher? At the time of writing, much of the money has been gotten back, which is an odd outcome in situations like these.
Canada Victim Gets a Lot of Money Returned
Everyone knows that most of the time, once crypto is stolen, it’s gone for good. This is one of the major problems with the crypto scene. Since it’s unregulated, there are no federal offerings such as FDIC or anything similar in the mix designed to protect crypto traders from becoming potential fraud victims. Nine times out of ten, if someone loses their money or has it taken from them, they can usually kiss it goodbye.
The loss occurred sometime last October. The person in question wound up losing more than 5.8 units of bitcoin to a crypto investment scam after being directed to purchase crypto for well over three months. Without this person’s knowledge, the money they invested wound up getting transferred overseas and converted into Tether, a popular stable asset.
Police discovered this and were able to interfere with future activity and thus return about $155,000 of the stolen funds to the original owner. Constable Dani McKinnon from the public information office in Winnipeg explained in a statement:
Police utilize certain techniques to trace crypto assets as they are moved. In some cases, the timely tracking of crypto assets can identify opportunities for law enforcement intervention.
Canada is eager to end all crypto fraud and implement strict regulatory tactics following the collapse of FTX, arguably the biggest embarrassment to ever hit the digital currency arena. Once one of the world’s top digital currency trading enterprises, FTX hit a real snag last November when its founder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried said the company was suddenly in need of fast cash and that a liquidity crunch was being experienced.
While he initially sought the aid of his rival Binance and tried to instigate a buyout, this never occurred, and it wasn’t long before his firm entered bankruptcy and he resigned from his post. He’s now awaiting trial, however, after it was discovered that he allegedly misused customer funds to purchase real estate and pay off loans for his other company Alameda Research.
A Lot of Problems It’s Trying to Avoid
Canada was also the central hub of Quadriga CX, which many believe was another scam opportunity for those in charge. The trading platform’s owner passed away close to five years ago, and he was the only one (purportedly) with knowledge of the private keys needed to access all the funds locked away within the company.
This meant that none of the customers could gain access to their funds after his death, and a huge class-action lawsuit has emerged in the meantime.
