File photo.
VicPD say they’ve recovered more than $35,000 lost by victims of a complex on-line scam.
Investigators also believe there could be more victims that have yet to come forward.
Police say that in the spring of 2018, a Victoria woman reported that she’d been the victim of an online scam to clean her computer of a virus.
She lost $1400.
In the fall, the victim was contacted by the same scammer who told her that the company had fired the employee responsible and that they were going to return her money.
She was then told to follow a series of directions to get her money back. She was told that due to tax laws and accounting regulations, she needed to receive and then re-send the money.
Investigators have now determined that the scammers were using the original victim to launder money from other people that had fallen prey to the scheme.
The bank placed a hold on the payments after it became clear that they were fraudulent, and investigators identified victims in Ontario, New York, New Jersey and Wisconsin.
With the help of the banks, police were then able to recover more than $35,000 from an account in India and return that money to a victim in Ontario and another in Wisconsin.
VicPD say no criminal charges have been laid but investigators continue to work with officers in other jurisdictions to identify other victims across North America.
They say if you’ve have been the victim of this fraud to call them at 250-995-7654
Ben O'Hara
