A resident of the Canadian province of Ontario lost $ 35,000 in bitcoins, transferring them to scammers who pretended to be employees of the technology giant Microsoft.

First, the Canadian user received a pop-up notification stating that the victim’s computer needed an update. The message included a phone number to call. During a telephone conversation, the scammers told the user that the computer’s firewall was out of date, after which the gullible man bought fake software from them and installed it.

The next day, attackers posing as Microsoft support workers contacted the user to verify that the software was working properly. The scammer then told the man that he accidentally sent money to his account and asked the user to return the funds to him in bitcoins. The victim transferred about $35,000 in BTC to a front Microsoft employee.

Fraudsters are increasingly impersonating employees of large companies, deceiving even experienced traders. Recently, a Coinbase customer spoke about phishing scammers posing as exchange tech support who used a similar scheme to swindle money.

In March, the creators of the gaming metaverse Sandbox also warned users about possible phishing mailings on their behalf due to a security breach.