Canadian residents fall victim to a series of cryptocurrency scams, with fraudsters impersonating Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers to carry out secondary fraud.

A resident of Nanaimo, Canada, was scammed late last year after receiving a text message promoting remote stock trading. He deposited approximately CAD 5,000 (about USD 3,600) into a cryptocurrency ATM. Earlier this year, the victim saw an online message masquerading as an RCMP announcement encouraging fraud victims to report the crime. After submitting a form, a person claiming to be a lawyer called, saying they had found two cryptocurrency accounts linked to the victim and could help recover approximately USD 60,000 in alleged gains. Gary O'Brien, RCMP Media Relations Officer in Nanaimo, stated that the RCMP will not contact individuals regarding discovered cryptocurrency accounts, will not cooperate with private companies to recover lost funds, and will not request any form of payment to investigate fraud. Andy Zhou, co-founder and CEO of blockchain security company BlockSec, stated that this type of tactic, known as a "fake recovery service scam," is systematic. Scammers typically possess victim information gathered from the original scam, and organized fraud groups circulate lists of victims who have already sent money, making these individuals targets for secondary scams. Impersonating law enforcement agencies is effective because it exploits the psychological mechanism of "authority bias." Canadian police have been conducting cryptocurrency investigation training since 2022.