On a chilly late February morning in Castlegar, British Columbia, police issued a stark warning to local businesses: beware of a new wave of Bitcoin scams that are sweeping across the region. This advisory, released by the Castlegar RCMP on February 28, 2026, is just one ripple in a global tide of cryptocurrency fraud that is becoming ever more sophisticated—and devastating.
The scam, as described by Castlegar RCMP and reported by local outlets, starts innocently enough. A business receives a phone call from someone pretending to be a service provider. The caller spins a tale of urgency, insisting that a delivery fee must be paid immediately to keep the business running. The pressure mounts: staff are told to close up shop, empty the register, and deposit the cash into a nearby Bitcoin ATM. The instructions are precise, the sense of crisis palpable. Yet, as police repeatedly emphasize, Canadian government agencies and law enforcement never demand payment through cryptocurrency. The message to businesses is clear: be cautious, never send money to unfamiliar contacts, and always verify the legitimacy of urgent requests through official channels.
But this scam is far from isolated. Across North America and beyond, similar stories are playing out with alarming frequency—and with much higher stakes. In Bexar County, Texas, Sheriff Javier Salazar sounded the alarm after an elderly couple lost $25,000 to scammers posing as law enforcement and bond agents. The couple, both in their seventies, were called at 3 p.m. on February 28 and kept on the phone for a staggering eight hours. The fraudsters convinced them that their son was in the Bexar County Adult Detention Center and could only be released if they paid a hefty sum. The couple dutifully drove from Comal County to various San Antonio retail outlets, depositing thousands of dollars into Bitcoin machines along the way.
"Our hope is that we can hopefully help these folks get their money back," Sheriff Salazar told reporters. Yet he added, with a note of resignation, "Our chances of identifying scammers that were doing this are, I’ll be honest, are slim to none." In response, Salazar is now working with San Antonio City Council members to propose an ordinance requiring warning signs near cryptocurrency ATMs, urging anyone on the phone with supposed law enforcement to hang up and not deposit money. Council members Terri Castillo and Misty Spears have both expressed interest in championing this effort, with meetings planned over the coming weeks.
Behind these local incidents lies a much larger, more insidious phenomenon: the rise of AI-driven scams that target not just businesses and the elderly, but anyone with a social media profile or a vulnerable moment. According to the US Federal Trade Commission, more than 64,000 romance scams were reported in 2023, resulting in a staggering $1.14 billion in losses. Experts believe the real numbers are even higher, as many victims remain silent out of shame or fear.
The mechanics of these scams have evolved dramatically. Where once fraudsters relied on poorly written emails or clumsy phone calls, today’s operators deploy artificial intelligence, deepfake technology, and voice cloning to create a web of deception that is almost indistinguishable from reality. Rob Woods, Senior Director of Fraud and Identity at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, explains: "The abundant availability of AI and deepfake technology is certainly adding fuel to the fire of scams. Romance scams rely on the scammer weaving intricate stories which, more now than ever before, can be backed up with highly realistic content such as identity documents, photos, recorded videos, live video chats and social posts generated by AI to help convince the target they are genuine."
One particularly chilling example involved a woman dining with her son when her parents called in a panic—they had just received a phone call from their grandson, begging for urgent bail money. The twist? The grandson was sitting at the table. Fraudsters had cloned his voice and used details scraped from social media to make the impersonation alarmingly convincing. It’s not just romance or business scams—anyone can be a target if the right emotional lever is pulled.
Romance scams, in particular, have grown into a structured criminal enterprise. No longer are they the domain of lone actors sending awkward messages from afar. As Woods notes, "The global rise in authorised push payment fraud goes hand in hand with the growth of scam centres, which are run just like legitimate enterprises—complete with call centres and structured teams using tried and tested scripts and resources." LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ 2024 Cybercrime Report found that fraud attempts from scam centres in Southeast Asia more than doubled in a year, with operators scraping social media for photos and personal details to craft ever more believable digital personas.
Increasingly, these romance scams morph into cryptocurrency investment schemes. Victims, like Beth Hyland, are slowly groomed over weeks or months. Hyland’s story is a case in point: she took out a loan and deposited $26,000 into a Bitcoin ATM over several days, believing she was helping her fiancé—someone she had never met—unlock a construction payment in Qatar. The psychological manipulation is intense, blending affection, secrecy, and urgency. As Woods puts it, "One key tell-tale signal that scammers employ is insisting on secrecy. They urge the victim not to discuss their relationship with others. This enables the fraudster to retain control of the scam and influence over the target."
The emotional toll is profound. Cathy Wilson, a licensed counsellor specializing in fraud trauma, observes that victims often experience "betrayal, shame and profound embarrassment." Many, like Hyland, are told by authorities that it wasn’t a crime because the money was sent willingly—a response that only deepens the sense of isolation and silence. Scammers count on this silence to continue their operations unchecked.
What makes these scams especially hard to combat is the speed and finality of cryptocurrency transactions. Once funds are sent to a digital wallet, recovery is nearly impossible. In regions like the Middle East, where social media usage is high and cross-border employment is common, the threat is particularly acute. References to cities like Doha or Dubai lend credibility to scammers’ stories, and the rapid adoption of crypto makes tracing and reversing payments a daunting challenge.
Yet technology is also being harnessed in the fight against fraud. LexisNexis Risk Solutions has developed adaptive fraud detection models that flag unusual transaction patterns—such as large transfers to unfamiliar crypto wallets. Financial institutions can then trigger additional verification steps or delay the transfer, buying precious time to prevent a loss. Kim Sutherland, vice-president of fraud and identity strategy at LexisNexis, notes, "To fight fraud, these evolving AI-powered models are going to be really important." Sharing anonymized intelligence across banks helps spot repeat offenders and emerging patterns before more victims are ensnared.
Still, experts stress that the most effective defense remains old-fashioned human vigilance. "The best advice is to confide in someone you trust," Woods advises. "Even if you don’t think it’s a scam, another person’s perspective can’t do any harm." Requests for secrecy, urgent demands for cryptocurrency payments, or elaborate stories involving overseas emergencies should always raise a red flag. If something feels off, it probably is.
For victims like Beth Hyland, the pain is real—but so is the resolve to help others avoid the same fate. "No one should ever have to experience this kind of heartbreak," she says, now working with anti-scam organizations to raise awareness. The tactics may have changed, but the underlying crime remains the same: manipulation, now supercharged by technology.
As police, policymakers, and tech companies grapple with this new frontier in fraud, one thing is certain: the fight against crypto scams is only just beginning, and vigilance—both digital and human—will be key in turning the tide.