Kelowna RCMP warn of scam involving police, security impersonators

The Kelowna RCMP are sounding the horn about a seemingly intricate scam that ended with a local resident being defrauded thousands of dollars.

The “elaborate scheme” was reported on June 26 and started when the victim received a text message from a popular online retailer, a news release says.

Police say the victim was told they had several open accounts currently being investigated for fraud.

The victim was told to contact the retailer by phone where they spoke with an individual posting as a security agent for the same company.

A news release says they were instructed, and automatically transferred to, the Canadian Anti-Fraud unit. The victim spoke with another person posing as an employee with the unit.

“In order to resolve the issue, the victim was directed to immediately withdraw $4,800 in cash and deposit it into a “verification machine” which also happened to be a bitcoin terminal,” notes the release.

At this point,the victim became suspicious and said they were going to call the police to verify the allegations. The fraudsters then hung up.

However, the scheme did not stop there.

The victim was then contacted from the Kelowna RCMP’s non-emergency phone number where an individual posing as a police officer provided a false name and badge number.

Unfortunately, the person posing as the police officer convinced the victim to make the deposit by telling them there was a warrant out for their arrest and this was the only way to avoid this.

The victim contacted the Kelowna RCMP themselves and confirmed this was a fraud after learning there was no officer with that name and that their money was gone.

Cpl. Michael Gauthier said the detachment hopes this citation serves well as a reminder to the community about the different types of scams.

“It's our responsibility to educate and help our community recognize the signs,” Cpl. Gauthier says in the news release.

“Anyone being directed to withdraw and deposit money into a bitcoin terminal, purchase i-Tunes gift cards or any other similar type of currency, should immediately assume this is a fraud and contact the RCMP themselves to verify.”

Cpl. Gauthier advises all residents to visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre for further information on the most recent scams and frauds.