Belleville police have given a Chief’s Commendation to a resident after he helped prevent an elderly man from being scammed at a Bitcoin machine.
John Duncan accepted the award during a brief ceremony, as part of Thursday’s Police Services Board meeting. Chief Murray Rodd and Deputy Chief Sheri Meeks presented the award, in recognition of his vigilance and commitment to the well-being of others in the community.
After the ceremony, Duncan said these machines shouldn’t be so common.
“Just tired of seeing it,” said Duncan. “These poor individuals that are brought to them to deposit money in feeling that they’re investing for their children’s future. And in reality, all that’s happening is they’re being ripped off.”
Early in February, Duncan was in a store on Dundas Street when he saw an elderly man depositing large amounts of money into a bitcoin machine. Duncan realized there was a chance this man was a victim of fraud and asked him about the deposit. The elderly man told Duncan he had been advised over the phone to deposit money as payment for taxes on his investments.
Recognizing the warning signs of a scam, Duncan asked to speak to the man on the phone, and when he did, realized it was a scam. Duncan stopped the victim from making the rest of his deposits, and then accompanied the victim to his bank to notify them of the incident and have the victim’s accounts secured against further scams.
Before Duncan intervened, the victim had already deposited $1300 and planned to deposit another $700. Later that evening, the victim’s son contacted Duncan and said he’d discovered that the victim had already been scammed out of at least $52,000 previously.
