VANCOUVER Coquitlam RCMP say a Burnaby resident has been charged with four counts of fraud after he allegedly scammed people with fake Publishers Clearing House prize offers. The man was allegedly pretending to offer prizes from Publishers Clearing House, an actual U.S.-based company well-known for its large sweepstakes and giveaways Twenty-seven-year-old Joel Kibangula has been charged with four counts of fraud over $5,000 for allegedly running a Publisher’s Clearing House Scam, according to a news release from Const. Deanna Law of Coquitlam RCM. The scam is alleged to have affected four people “over multiple jurisdictions.” According to police, they received a complaint about the scam more than a year ago, on Nov. 4, 2019.
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Police are urging the public report any suspicious threatening mail.
Cut brake lines. Poisoned packages. Drive-by shootings. Death to you and all your family members.
Those are some of the terrifying threats enclosed in a series of letters sent to Metro Vancouver residents in recent weeks. Police are alerting the public after several people in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam received letters threatening death if they didn’t pay an amount of Bitcoin to an anonymous QR code address.
But police say the letters, while alarming, are just a scam.
Coquitlam RCMP
RCMP have shared the letter to spread public awareness of the scam.
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With a number of $230 fines issued in recent weeks to those disobeying BC’s mandatory mask laws, one such fine was given to a man this past weekend – after he asked police to give it to him.
According to Coquitlam RCMP Const. Deanna Law, the incident took place on December 11, when the man was inside the Coquitlam Library on Poirier Street.
“Library staff asked the man to put on a mask and he refused to do so,” Law told Daily Hive. “The man was then asked to leave the library and also refused to comply.”
Law said staff then informed the man they would call the police if he didn’t leave, to which the man reportedly told them to “go ahead” and do so.