A woman from Montreal said she lost nearly $25,000 on a fake cryptocurrency trading platform that she believed was developed by Elon Musk, highlighting the risks of online scams, which have become increasingly complex.

For just over a month, the woman, whose identity has been withheld, thought she was trading cryptocurrencies on a legitimate platform.

She said, “I was on Facebook, and a video of Elon Musk appeared, where he talked for about five to ten minutes about a new trading platform," which had the CBC News icon in the corner.

She also stated that she was in a desperate financial situation, so she clicked on the link and was immediately contacted by a broker who claimed to work with the trading platform. An account was set up for her, and she began investing.

She remarked, “I saw the profits growing and I was enjoying the process."

After investing nearly $25,000, she eventually started feeling suspicious and decided to withdraw her funds.

She added: I said I want to leave, I just want my money, and I want to close the account."

When she tried to withdraw her money, she said the fake platform demanded hefty fees and security deposits to get her money back.

She ended up sending another $3,000 to the platform before finally realizing she would never get her money back.

She explained: I tried hard to hold onto any hope for good and humanity, and when I contacted these people, they knew I wasn’t in a good financial position, and they knew very personal things about me."

It is noteworthy that last year, Canadians reported losing more than $314 million due to investment scams, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC) stated that this is likely just the tip of the iceberg.

Jeff Horncastle, the outreach officer for communications planning at CAFC, said: We estimate that only between 5 to 10 percent of victims report their cases to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre," adding that the majority of reports are related to cryptocurrencies.

He added: These platforms appear very realistic and legitimate, but unfortunately, often after months, victims realize they have been scammed when it comes time to attempt to withdraw their funds."

Carmi Levy, a technology analyst at Bell Media, said the Musk video promoting the trading platform has been circulating online for months but was faked using artificial intelligence.