Police say cryptocurrency scams cost victims in the Vancouver-area about $2 million in just one week and investigators believe the frauds are becoming more common. Vancouver police Const. Tania Visintin says she knows of at least four active cases where large amounts of money have been lost. She says a single victim was defrauded of more than $500,000 in a separate case last year when suspects pretending to be Service Canada representatives convinced them their Social Insurance Number had been compromised. Visintin says police believe the number of scams is growing and the total is under-repor

Police say they've identified the woman shot inside a social housing building on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside early Wednesday morning. They say 24 year old Shania Paulson died after being shot inside the Arco Hotel, a single room occupancy building. No arrests have been made and police say the investigation is ongoing. Police believe her attacker fled and they're asking anyone with information to contact homicide detectives or Crime Stoppers. Vancouver Police on Twitter: #VPDNews: Vancouver Police have identified the victim in the city’s third homicide of 2021. http://ow.ly/BpBM50E2MiZ

BC is reporting 622 new cases of COVID-19, pushing the total over 90-thousand since the pandemic began, and eight more people have died. A joint statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says more than 4,900 infections are active, including 286 people who are hospitalized. BC has confirmed 136 new variant cases for a total of 1,132, the vast majority of which are the variant first found in the United Kingdom. The province says 143 cases of those variants of concern remain active. The latest numbers come after the province announced more than 300,

Homicide investigators have been called to a park in Burnaby, B.C., after the remains of a burned body were found on Thursday. Det. Lara Jansen of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the investigation is in its very early stages and the victim has not been identified. Speaking at a news conference beside the park, close to a large housing development and the main campus of the B.C. Institute of Technology, Jansen says it's not known yet known if the victim is male or female. The case is being handled as a suspicious death and Jansen says police will work with the BC Coroners Servi

RCMP in the southern interior say they've recovered more than 100 keys to various vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment they believe were stolen. The Mounties say they were called to a rural property Sunday night after receiving a report of a suspicious ATV driving in Okanagan Falls. They say officers got to the property and confirmed the ATV was stolen and seized several other items believed to be stolen, including the keys. Police say one man associated with the property was arrested on an outstanding warrant. The investigation is ongoing.

The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia says it's temporarily delaying the delivery of COVID-19 rebate cheques due to a cyberattack on a third-party vendor contracted to provide printing and distribution services. ICBC says in a statement the vendor held customer names and addresses, as well as the dollar amounts and numbers of the rebate cheques, but there's no indication that information was obtained in the cyberattack. It says the attack did not affect ICBC's own systems, which are secure. The corporation had planned to start issuing the one-time rebate cheques this week and says it p

British Columbia is reporting 498 new cases of COVID-19 and four more deaths, pushing the death toll in the province to 1,411. Among more than 89,000 cases diagnosed to date, 4,851 are active, including 281 people who are in hospital. A statement from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix says no data about new cases of COVID-19 variants of concern is available today due to a lab sequencing issue. BC had confirmed close to a thousand variant cases earlier this week. More than 444,000 doses of three approved COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in BC and

Police say a woman has been fatally shot in Vancouver. A statement from Sgt. Steve Addison says police responded to a call at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday. Addison says the woman was found in a social housing building in the Downtown Eastside and died later in hospital. Police believe her attacker fled. Addison says no arrests have been made and the woman has not been identified. The shooting is Vancouver's third homicide of the year. Vancouver Police Department on Twitter: #VPDNews: Vancouver Police are investigating the city’s third homicide of the year, which occurred Wednesday morning in a

RCMP in Nanaimo say a 57 year old man is facing criminal charges after driving into multiple police vehicles causing damage Monday. They say the first police vehicle was side-swiped while driving with its siren on for another call, and later the same man appeared to steer his pickup truck into two parked police cars before driving into the side of a building. After being blocked in, Mounties say the man got out of his truck and charged at an officer. The officer used a Taser and pepper spray. Constable Gary O'Brien says in a statement officers have had extensive interactions with the man who'