Sick to her stomach.

That’s how a Calgary woman felt when she realized she’d been taken for $10,500 by scammers posing as Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) officials — demanding immediate payment to avoid a trip to jail.

Distroscale

When Linda Levovnik answered her phone Feb. 26, she unwittingly fell victim to a sinister new twist on an old scam: the only way to get back into the law’s good graces was to tender payment in bitcoin, a digital currency that relies on an encrypted online ledger called a blockchain to verify and route transactions between two people.

First gaining public notoriety for its use in online black markets and illicit transactions on the dark net, bitcoin has found favour with mainstream users in recent years for everything from day-to-day transactions and commodity investing.

The first of its kind, bitcoin is now just one of many cryptocurrencies in use on the internet today.

For Levovnik, her introduction to cryptocurrencies came by way of a threatening phone call last month, demanding immediate settlement of a supposed tax debt — or else.

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“They came right out and said that there’s a warrant for my arrest,” she said.

“At first, maybe I thought it was a wrong number.”

When the mysterious caller suddenly hung up, she looked up the number on call display and called it back — just to make sure.

“They asked me my name, and said, ‘oh, yeah — we have your file right here.’ ”

She said she was reminded of a similar email she’d received the previous month likewise demanding payment for outstanding tax debts, which she’d then dismissed as a scam.

Now convinced the caller was legitimate, Levovnik was told she had two choices: pay her ‘outstanding balance’ of $5,950, or settle the matter in court.

“They said they’d take away my driver’s licence, take away my passport,” she said.

The scammer told her they’d only accept payment through bitcoin, and even gave her directions to the nearest bitcoin ATM.

Warning her not to hang up as she drove to the ATM, the scammer walked her through the process of converting her cash into crypto and then sending it.

Once the $5,950 was sent, they convinced her to make a second transfer of $4,550 to cover “administration fees.”

That’s when the scammers got greedy, she said — and Levovnik got suspicious.

“They wanted me to pay them another $14,000, and provide three witnesses to verify that I won’t be cheating the government anymore,” she said.

It was enough for her to hang up and head home, where she paid a visit to the CRA website — and was immediately greeted with warnings about criminals posting as agency reps.

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“I looked at it and said ‘oh, no.’ ”

After a sleepless night, she brought her receipts and documentation to the police.

That’s where she learned the awful truth: she’d indeed be scammed, and due to the untraceable nature of cryptocurrency transactions, there was no way to get her money back.

Criminals using cryptocurrency has seen an unprecedented increase, said Sgt. Andy MacLeod of the Calgary police cybercrimes unit.

“It’s up 10 times from what it was even just last year,” he said.

“Especially with the advent of cryptocurrency ATMs. So it’s so much easier for the bad guys to say, ‘head to this location, we’ll talk you through it.’ ”

According to the website Coin ATM Radar , Calgary is currently home to 40 bitcoin ATMs installed at a wide variety of businesses, ranging from pawn shops to restaurants.

The days of scammers demanding payment via wire transfers or gift cards are all but gone, MacLeod said. It’s all been replaced with bitcoin.

“No government of banking institution — especially government like the Canada Revenue Agency — will utilize cryptocurrency at this point because it’s not regulated,” he said.

The anonymous and untraceable nature of such transactions are what makes them appealing to scammers — and challenging for both police and victims.

“That presents a challenge for people who lose money,” he said.

“Once people send money on the blockchain, unless we have keys from the other end, it’s pretty much gone.”