Fake news story circulated by scammers posing as Ontario police gained international attention

A Hamilton Police officer is seen in this undated photo. (Twitter/@HamiltonPolice)

Someone spoofed an Ontario police service's email address earlier this week and sent a fake news tip detailing a cryptocurrency scam to news organizations.

The fake release, sent to a number of media outlets on Monday, said Hamilton Police Service joined forces with the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the United Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force for an investigation, the service said.

Const. Indy Bharaj told CTV News Toronto it stated a victim, located somewhere in the U.S., was tricked into losing $4.2-million worth of Ethereum and Bitcoin to two Canadian teens, who went by the aliases Felon and Gaze.

The story picked up local and international attention, police said.

Hamilton police confirmed the investigation never happened and that the email was not sent out by them.

“We just started investigating into it, but it seems like it was sent Monday, July 3, in the evening, just after five o’clock,” Bharaj said.

“It was made to look similar to our media releases, just some of the information that was put in there, when you look at it closely, is not how we write. It was a little too much information, almost way too much information that would have evidentiary value in the actual media release.”

It is a criminal offence to impersonate a police officer, the release reminded the public.

“Hamilton Police recognize the public’s trust in the police is very important and incidents like this can cause the community to second guess police communication,” the release reads.

Anyone with information is asked to call Hamilton police’s Technology Crime Unit at 905-546-4793 or Crime Stoppers anonymously.