The Nova Scotia Securities Commission and Halifax police are warning the public about cryptocurrency-related fraud, noting Nova Scotians lost more than $750,000 to such scams this year.

According to a news release, the Securities Commission, which made warnings about crypto scams in January and March, expects the total amount of losses to that kind of fraud could be much higher as “investment fraud is vastly under-reported.”

The release also says Nova Scotians lost more than $1 million through “pig butchering” schemes in 2022. The Securities Commission is warning the public about a rise in new scams that involve fake crypto-trading websites and platforms, or fraudsters posing as registered or professional crypto traders.

“Most unregistered platforms are located overseas even if they list a North American address on their website,” said Paul Radford, chair of the Securities Commission.

“They often will reference $250 as a safe, easy starting deposit, but any money deposited on these platforms is stolen, not invested, and the fraudster manufactures reports showing lucrative returns that are imaginary and false and designed to entice their victims to invest more and more money, which increases the amounts lost.”

Anyone trading in crypto assets is reminded to never use credit cards or lines of credit to invest and to only use crypto-asset trading platforms or dealers registered in Canada.