More than $55M has been lost to investment scams in Toronto over the last 9 months. Is 'pig butchering' making it worse?Investment scams, in which victims are convinced to invest their money by fraudulent promises of high returns, have been around for decades but only last year did police start tracking the total dollar value lost to the scheme in Toronto.Since May 2023, more than $57 million has been reported stolen in investment scams from Toronto residents, Coffey told CTV News.
This latest iteration of scam has proven a problem in Toronto and across the globe. In fact, researchers in Texas estimated in February that‘Pig butchering’ is thought to be behind an influx of seemingly random messages being received by people all over the world from unknown numbers. Eventually, fraudsters will send the proceeds to centralized crypto exchanges and cash them out for traditional money. Last November, the founder of Binance, one of the most popular exchanges,Victims of these kinds of scams are most often not wealthy individuals looking to grow profits, as some might expect, Coffey explained – they’re people without money, desperate for income, and willing to use what little they have to acquire more.
“Once the money has been sent off – I’m not going to say it’s impossible – but it’s very unlikely they will ever see it again,” Coffey said. “It's just a really, really, really sad and harsh reality.” “We’re at a point now, unfortunately, where the federal government has to get involved. There has to be a commission of sorts focusing solely on cyber issues, whether it be crypto, whether it be breaches, whether it be child pornography or anything else in between,” Warren said. “Because the current model, it just doesn't work anymore.”
Potential investors need to make sure the companies they are going into business with are authentic and trustworthy – the “easier” the investment is to make, the more wary you should be, says Coffey. Winter storm warnings and advisories of up to 50 centimetres of snowfall have been issued for some Canadian provinces, according to local forecasts.Ultra-endurance athlete Nick Pelletier knew the Hawaiian channel he planned to swim had plenty of sharks, but he should have been worried about the jellyfish.The federal government recorded a budgetary deficit of $25.7 billion as of the end of January for the current fiscal year.
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