· 6 min read
If you have been scammed in crypto in Canada, stop sending money, save every transaction hash, wallet address and message, and contact the exchange or platform you sent the funds from as soon as you can. Then report the fraud to your local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and to your provincial securities regulator if it was an investment scam. Acting in the first day or two does not guarantee any outcome, but it preserves the options that exist.
Stop sending funds
The first priority is to stop the loss from growing. Many crypto frauds do not end with the first deposit. When a victim tries to withdraw, the platform suddenly demands a withdrawal fee, a tax, a verification deposit or an "unlock" payment. These requests are part of the scam. Paying them does not release anything; it only increases the loss.
Stop engaging with the scammer on substance. There is no need to announce that you have reported them, to argue or to threaten. Equally, do not delete the conversation, block the account before you have saved everything, or close your own accounts in a hurry. At this stage, the record matters more than having the last word.
It is also worth pausing before acting on any advice that arrives unsolicited over the next few days, however helpful it sounds. That point is covered in more detail below.
Preserve the evidence while it still exists
Scam websites go offline, profiles are deleted and chat histories can disappear. Capture everything now, store copies somewhere other than the device you used, and do not rely on the platforms to keep it for you. The items that tend to matter most are:
- Transaction hashes (also called transaction IDs) for every transfer you made.
- The wallet addresses you sent from and every address you sent to, copied exactly rather than retyped.
- Amounts, assets and networks, with the date and time of each transfer and the time zone.
- Statements or transaction histories from any exchange or bank account involved.
- Screenshots of the scam website or app, including your supposed account balance, along with the full web addresses.
- Usernames, phone numbers, email addresses and profile links for everyone you dealt with.
- Complete chat exports and emails, not only selected screenshots.
- Any documents you were given, such as contracts, certificates, invoices or "official" letters.
Then write a short timeline in your own words: how first contact happened, what you were told, and when each payment was made. Memory fades quickly, and an account written now is far more useful to police, counsel and any investigator than one reconstructed weeks later. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre likewise advises victims to gather all information about the fraud, including documents, receipts and copies of emails and text messages.
Contact the exchange or institution you sent from
If the funds left a Canadian exchange or crypto trading platform, contact its support or fraud team promptly and in writing. Give them the transaction hashes, the destination addresses and a short summary of what happened. If you bought the crypto with a bank transfer or card before sending it on, tell your bank or card issuer as well. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre recommends reporting fraud to the financial institution involved in the transfer.
Be realistic about what this step can achieve. A transfer that has been confirmed on a blockchain cannot be reversed by the platform that sent it. What the platform can do is document your report, review your account for further risk and, depending on its own processes, take note of the destination addresses. That record can matter later. If the scam began on a social media platform or online marketplace, report the account to that platform too.
Report to police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre
Report the fraud to your local police service and ask for a file or occurrence number, then keep a note of every call. In many communities, particularly outside Ontario and Quebec, the local police service is the RCMP. It is the role of local police to investigate, and the RCMP has said that victims should continue to report incidents to their local police as well as to the national reporting system.
That national system is run jointly by the RCMP’s National Cybercrime Coordination Centre and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. You can report online through Report Cybercrime and Fraud, at reportcyberandfraud.canada.ca, or by calling the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre toll-free at 1-888-495-8501. Reports can also be made anonymously.
Reporting is unlikely to produce an immediate result, and it helps to know that before you start. But reports allow authorities to link similar cases across Canada and internationally, and the reference numbers you receive are useful when you, your counsel or an exchange later need to show that the matter was reported promptly.
If it was an investment scam, tell your securities regulator
Many crypto frauds are presented as investment opportunities: a trading platform, a managed account, a mining pool or a "guaranteed yield" product. If that describes your situation, report it to the securities regulator in your province or territory as well. Canadian securities regulators advise people who have been approached by, or lost money to, a fraudulent investment to contact their local regulator, and the Canadian Securities Administrators website lists contact details for each one.
In Ontario, the Ontario Securities Commission’s Inquiries & Contact Centre helps people who believe they have been the victim of securities-related investment fraud, through an online form or by phone at 1-877-785-1555. In British Columbia, the BC Securities Commission accepts complaints and tips through an online complaint form. Regulators can investigate and sanction those who break securities law, but they normally do not recover money for individual investors, so a report to them complements the other steps rather than replacing them.
Secure your accounts and devices
Assume that anything you shared with the scammer may be used again. If you gave anyone your seed phrase or private key, or entered it on a website, treat that wallet as compromised: create a new wallet on a device you trust and move any remaining assets to it. If you connected your wallet to the scam site or approved transactions there, review and revoke any token approvals you do not recognize.
Change the password on your email account first, since it is often the key to everything else, then on your exchange and banking accounts, and turn on app-based two-factor authentication where it is available. If you installed remote access software at someone’s request, remove it and have the device checked before using it for anything financial. If you shared identity documents or personal information, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre recommends placing flags on your accounts and contacting both national credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion.
Expect the follow-up scam
In the days and weeks after a loss, many victims are contacted by people offering to get their money back. They may present themselves as hackers, lawyers or investigators, or even as police or regulators, and they will usually want a fee first. This second wave of fraud is well documented, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre warns about it directly. The Centre has also stated that it and the police will never ask you to transfer funds or make a payment of any kind.
A simple rule covers most cases: if someone you did not contact offers to recover your crypto, especially for an upfront fee or with a guarantee, do not engage. If you want to check whether a message is genuine, look up the organization’s contact details independently and ask them directly.
What realistically happens next
Once the first 48 hours have passed, the question usually becomes whether anything more can be done. Because most blockchains are public, it is often possible to trace where funds went. Whether they can be recovered is a separate question. It depends on whether the funds reached a regulated exchange or other intermediary that can be asked, through legal process, to freeze them, on how quickly that happens and on which jurisdictions are involved. Some matters have realistic options; many do not.
If you are considering professional help, look for a written scope and honestly stated limitations before any payment, and treat any guarantee as a warning sign. A written case assessment is a reasonable place to start: it should tell you plainly what can be done, what it would cost and what it cannot achieve.