That's a great question.
It varies, but I'd say that roughly once every two weeks I get a call from a Canadian who has been the victim of fraud. They've discovered that they've been defrauded. They're desperate to get their funds back, and there's little I can do, because it's too late. The crypto has been transferred to someone out of the country, and nobody knows where. In limited cases, law enforcement is successful in retrieving the funds and bringing them back to the victim, but that doesn't happen in the majority of cases.
I've had probably 30 or 40 calls or more in the last few years from victims, so I see patterns. It's always an investment company. People are being duped by so-called asset managers or investment funds. They've given their cryptocurrency to a fraudulent fund that's going to manage their crypto on their behalf. That's almost always the case.
Greater education was mentioned by one of the other witnesses. There needs to be almost an education program devoted just to cryptocurrency and investment fund fraud. If it's initiated by the federal government, that's great, but there needs to be something that specifically targets cryptocurrency and investment fund fraud, because a lot of people want to get into cryptocurrency. They've heard about it and they want to invest in Bitcoin, but they don't understand the difference between a regulated Canadian exchange—we have great regulated crypto exchanges, including many in Alberta and Ontario—and the fraudulent crypto investment funds.
I think an education campaign would promote awareness across Canada of investing in a fraudulent fund and not letting just anyone manage your cryptocurrency. Education on who the good operators are and the risks would be great, I think.