During the first two months of 2023, Wellington County residents lost an estimated $1,345,714 in various scams.
This comes from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), who said officers have received 86 fraud complaints from Wellington County residents this year.
Many of the frauds utilize bitcoin for the payment method or gift cards, but this was usually for smaller frauds or smaller denominations, according to OPP.
So far this year, Wellington County OPP has responded to a handful of major fraud investigations, including one earlier this week where a Puslinch resident lost around $300,000.
Another incident earlier this year involved a Wellington North resident who claims over six months they invested approximately $500,000 with a fraudulent online cryptocurrency investment firm.
The numbers from OPP come as the government begins fraud prevention month on Wednesday.
“The 2022 top three frauds with the highest levels of reported victim losses were investment scams, particularly cryptocurrency fraud, romance scams, and spear phishing,” the RCMP said in a news release earlier this week.
In 2022, OPP noted 343 frauds were reported in Wellington County, a slight decrease from the 374 reported in 2021.
In the last nine years, the year with the highest number of reported frauds was 2019 when Wellington County OPP received 406 reported frauds.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CFRA) said only between five and 10 per cent of scams are reported.
