Tom St. Denis was on his lunch break at the Kanata Indian Supermarket when he happened to pass by an elderly woman being guided over the phone to use the store’s bitcoin ATM.
They had her install malicious software on her computer and her banking credentials were soon compromised. Not long after, a deposit of $1,200 appeared in her savings account. She was told to buy $1,000 in gift cards and that she could keep the remaining $200 for her troubles.When St Denis approached her Friday, the woman was ready to send $4,000 of her own money.
The Ottawa Police Service says it receives 30 to 40 fraud reports a day – many being variations of the investment scam St. Denis intercepted. “A prime example would be to set them up as a non-administrator on their own computer so they can't change settings,” he explained. “Another way, especially with Windows, is that it has what they call Microsoft Family - so you can create a child account for elderly or highly-gullible people from that.”
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