Guelph woman loses more than $300K to cryptocurrency scam

An undated stock image of cryptocurrency (Worldspectrum/Pexels).

Guelph Police have issued another scam warning after a resident recently lost $331,000 to a cryptocurrency scheme.

A woman in her 60s reported the scam to police on Tuesday.

She said a man contacted her about a basement apartment she had listed for rent and, while exchanging messages, the woman said he convinced her to invest in crypto currency. The woman explained that she downloaded an app and began with an investment of $200,000. Believing that her initial investment had grown, the woman then paid an extra $131,000 in fees.

Only then did she realize it was a scam and reported it to police.

Police have cautioned the public to be careful when talking to someone they don’t know online. Money sent through cryptocurrency is hard to trace and difficult to recover.