Scammers these days are preferring bitcoin and other digital currencies to avoid traceability and 2019 witnessed several such cases. The most recent was reported by Toronto Hydro customers who reportedly received threatening phone calls, demanding Bitcoin payment to retain electricity.
Phone Scammers Are Demanding Bitcoin
As per the Canadian media outlet Narcity, few customers of the country’s biggest electric utilities centre, Toronto Hydro have been threatened by scam phone calls. Scammers are reportedly intimidating to cut the electricity supply of customers if they don’t pay them in Bitcoin. However, a spokesperson for Toronto Hydro said;
“Over the last couple of months, we have been reminding Toronto hydro customer to be aware of sophisticated scams that are targetting both businesses and residential customers,”
However, as part of Toronto Hydro, they don’t disconnect their power supply immediately and also warned their customers to stay away from handing over money to the scammers. They also said that they never accept bitcoin as payment which sounds that the scammers are misrepresenting themselves as representative of Toronto Hydro.
As per the firm, if at all customers experience electricity cut, it will be due to nonpayment issues. The spokesperson further elaborated it as follows;
“We will never disconnect power without first contacting customers through multiple channels,”
Moreover, such threatening or scamming phone calls often appears on rising volume during the holiday season and long weekends. The firm also shared a couple of guidelines for customers to protect themselves from possible fraud. However, if anyone wants to verify that the calls received are legitimate from the Toronto Hydro, they can do so by calling at 416-542-8000 and speak to a real representative.
Even though Bitcoin isn’t favouring the crypto market for quite long, it looks like scammers are fond of bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Notably, at the press time, the crowning cryptocurrency Bitcoin is trading at $7263 against USD. The currency is currently declined by 2.04 percent within the past 24Hrs and reportedly counts the market capitalization of $131,701,588,695.
Undeniably, this isn’t the new case in the crypto industry, the market has quite often expressed several cases like this. However, it is worth looking at the market condition in 2020.