A Concordia University of Edmonton student who recently lost nearly $11,000 to phone scammers says universities should better educate international students about common scams in Canada.
Parisa Ghanbari, a 27-year-old master's student who arrived in Edmonton from Iran this fall, received a phone call on Oct. 20 from a caller who said someone had been using her Amazon account to buy electronics and open bank accounts in different countries.
Over the phone, the scammer pressured her to make two cash withdrawals from her bank account and deposit the money — ostensibly to verify and protect it — into a bitcoin ATM at a downtown store. The caller urged her not to talk with anyone about the transactions because she could not trust them to keep her information safe.
Parisa Ghanbari used this ATM on Oct. 20. A sign on the machine warns that the CRA and RCMP don't demand payment through bitcoin. Though she was familiar with some types of scams, like phishing links, she said she had never heard of scammers purporting to be government agents and had never seen a bitcoin ATM.Ghanbari reported the scam to police, who said nothing could be done because she deposited the money and the scammers were outside the country.
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