Summerside Police Services wants to make the public aware of a recent scamming incident in the city which involved a false kidnapping claim.
Police said that just before 6 p.m. Tuesday evening, they received a report from a citizen who had just receive a text message from the cell phone of their adult child claiming they were being held against their will. They message said the sender needed $5,000.
The complainant was able to track their child’s cell phone and provided police with its location.
Police found the person who was purportedly being held against their will and determined they were not in danger and that the text had been a scam.
However, when police found the person who had been the subject of the false kidnapping claim, they told police they were on the phone with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) agent who was telling them they owed the government money and that they had to go to a bitcoin machine and transfer funds to the CRA. This was also a scam.
The CRA does not collect funds with demands for immediate money transfers and does not deal in bitcoins.
No money was lost by the victims in these two incidents.
