A woman in Alberta has another warning about so-called “digital gold” and the rush to get money in cryptocurrency.
Look:
BC man loses retirement savings to cryptocurrency scam
A Calgary investor – new to cryptocurrency and cryptocurrencies – told Global News she’s about $ 2,500 out because of what she believes are fraudulent activities.
“I was very adventurous and very unprepared for what I was investing in,” said Isabelle Lévesque.
“I trusted them. I can not believe I was caught. “
Calgary investor warns others after losing $ 2,500 in crypto investment.
Global Calgary
Lévesque said she found company TrueNorthBit, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, while you were looking online a few months ago. She issued and the company was quick to respond. She said she continued to receive regular calls from the company over the next few weeks.
“They kept insisting on talking to me over the phone,” she said. “They wanted to get to know me better.”
Lévesque said company representatives won her trust, so she trusted them with her money. Especially, she added, when she started seeing returns.
“The profit just kept growing every day. At one point, in just two weeks, I made $ 200 in profit. “
But then Lévesque says she’s being put under pressure to invest more – thousands more. She said she was told if she did not deposit about $ 10,000 in total, she would be transferred to a more junior adviser and not see the returns she saw.
Read more:
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She refused and instead decided to start the process of taking out all her money – with the help, she said, of TrueNorthBit.
“This lady called me and started telling me to do all kinds of transactions that I did not understand,” said Lévesque.
“The balance that night, the balance on my account that I could see online, was zero.”
Read more:
Aylmer man loses $ 141,000 in cryptocurrency scam: police
Lévesque sent email after email to the company, which obtained Global News.
In one of them she asks: “What did you do to my account? You did not call me back as scheduled on December 24th and my account at TrueNorthBit shows $ 0. I did not receive my money. “
An email response from the support department at TrueNorthBit reads: “As we can see, you have lost the amount due to trading activities, please check your closed positions for more information.”
Lévesque is adamant that she did not exchange anything and added she only did what the representative told her to do.
Global News tried to contact TrueNorthBit for a response to her claims. We sent numerous emails directly to the representatives in charge of handling Lévesque’s accounts. We also called the Canadian and British phone numbers listed on the emails, but we received no response.
BBB alert
The Better Business Bureau serves Southern Alberta and Eastern Kootenay told Global News he had not received any other complaints about this particular company, but he had received eight other complaints about crypto-investment.
“It’s kind of the wild west in the crypto asset market right now,” said BBB’s West Lafortune. “It’s a big problem. It explodes. “
Lafortune said the median loss was $ 600, but he added that there were in fact millions of dollars in losses due to cryptocurrency schemes and fraud in Canada.
Lafortune added that the regulations surrounding crypto-investment have begun to “catch up”, but he said that real change is still a long way off. He suggested investors do their research, get investment advice from someone they trust, and do not be in a hurry or feel pressured to invest.
“It’s a bit of the gold rush mentality,” he pointed out. “People want to make money fast and there are promises of big profits, big profits and it usually doesn’t materialize.”
“The crux of the matter is not to invest in a crypto asset unless you can afford to lose the money.”
Alberta Securities Commission warning
The Alberta Security Commission (ASC) told Global News it is also aware of parties involved in fraudulent investment schemes, including some related to crypto-assets / crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin.
This and that Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) recently issued warnings to investors and warned of the dangers.
The ASC said it was focused on educating Albertans about investing, including investing in crypto-assets, adding that it was a very high risk and not suitable for all investors. It has also added a number of resources to its site to help investors look at which sites are registered.
It has also strongly encouraged Albertans to ignore unsolicited crypto-investment offers received online or through social media.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Reference-globalnews.ca