The Nova Scotia Securities Commission is warning residents of a crypto scam, which it says is often cruelly referred to as a “pig butchering” scheme.
The commission said in a Monday morning release the scam is causing “individual losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars,” across Canada and the U.S. It’s estimated more than $1 billion has been lost to these scams in North America since 2021.
According to the release, the scam starts with an unsolicited message over text, email or social media, or when a victim clicks on a crypto trading ad online.
The victim is then often asked to communicate through another messaging platform, such as WhatsApp, Telegram or SMS, which “make tracing the scammer difficult, if not impossible,” the province said.
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Scammers attempt to develop a personal relationship with a victim, and then persuade the victim to open a crypto trading account where they will deposit a small amount of money. The province said scammers will often say “great profits that can be made by ‘investing’ in crypto.”
After the first deposit, the scammer will show the victim screenshots of fake “account statements” showing large gains to convince the victim to invest…
