Police have issued a warning about a rise in cryptocurrency scams, with scammers impersonating police officers and cryptocurrency company representatives to steal funds from Kiwis.

Detective Inspector Stuart Mills said police had received a large number of reports in recent weeks, with some victims having lost millions of dollars.

Scammers had been posing as detectives, often claiming a victims personal information or identity documents had been found on a person who had been arrested.  

“The fake detective directs their questions towards establishing if and how the victim holds cryptocurrency, before arranging for a fake representative from the cryptocurrency company to contact the victim,” Mills said.

“The fake representative then…