After several similar incidents in the preceding months, the Fort St John RCMP is asking members of the public to familiarize themselves with a new scam targeting employees in the area.
Police say that on July 31, 2025, an employee of a store in Fort St John was targeted by a fraudster purporting to be their boss. The fraudster convinced the employee to deposit $900 into a Bitcoin ATM to pay for the delivery of a package for the business and they complied.
By the time the unsuspecting employee realized they had sent money to a fraudster, rather than their boss, the money had been converted into Bitcoin and was deposited into the fraudster’s Crypto Wallet.
“Legitimate businesses are not going to ask you to pay for items or services with cryptocurrencies. Once your money is converted into Bitcoin, for example, and sent to a fraudster’s Crypto Wallet, there’s an extremely low chance of tracing the money and next to no chance of recovering it,” said Constable Christiaan Dreyer, Media Relations Officer with the Fort St John RCMP.
Protect yourself from these scams:
- No legitimate business, bank, or government agency will ever ask you to deposit money into a cryptocurrency machine.
- Scammers often create a sense of urgency and prey on lack of public knowledge regarding cryptocurrencies.
- If someone contacts you and something doesn’t feel right, hang up and contact your supervisor or manager using a trusted phone number.
For a full list of common scams and how to report them, visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre website.