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Russian BTC-e operator extradited to the US

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According to BTC-e operator Alexander Vinnik’s French attorney Frederic Belot, Vinnik has been extradited from Greece to the United States. The first to report on the extradition was CNN.

The Russian national is charged with operating an exchange for cryptocurrencies worth many billions of dollars that reportedly made money from several hacking and extortion activities.

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The Justice Department claims that Alexander Vinnik, who is in his early 40s, controlled a cryptocurrency exchange called BTC-e that transacted business with identity thieves, drug dealers, and ransomware gangs. He is accused of operating an unregistered money service business in the US as well as money laundering in the US Northern District Court of California.

The extradition of Vinnik represents a significant victory for US law enforcement officials who had been engaged in a high-stakes extradition battle with Russia to get Vinnik’s custody.

The BTC-e owner is likely to make an initial court appearance in the US Northern District of California, according to Frédéric Bélot, Vinnik’s French attorney, who told CNN on Thursday afternoon that his client was traveling to the US from Athens, Greece, via plane.

The accused’s attorney further stated that Vinnik continues to maintain that he is innocent.

BTC-e runs its course

U.S. authorities had withdrawn their request for the Russian national’s extradition from France a few weeks prior. Vinnik’s attorney had previously stated that by withdrawing the extradition request, he could instead be transported to Greece and then the United States.

Belot did not elaborate on the legal strategy being employed at the time, choosing instead to say,

“By withdrawing their request, the U.S. reactivate the Greece request.”

Belot did not elaborate on the legal strategy being employed at the time, choosing instead to say that “by withdrawing their request, the U.S. reactivate the Greece request.”

Vinnik is well-known for being the owner of BTC-e, one of the early bitcoin (BTC) exchanges. BTC-e was connected to the heist of Mt.Gox, the first bitcoin exchange, which was forced to close down in 2014 after 744,408 BTC were stolen.

When American authorities shut down BTC-e in 2017, Vinnik was detained in Greece while vacationing on a beach with his family, and its servers were seized. Since then, Vinnik has been the target of extradition requests from the US, France, and Russia, each of which has a distinct set of accusations.

Vinnik was sentenced to five years in prison there by a French court in 2020, and the conviction was upheld last summer. France, however, triumphed in this case.

Cryptocurrency scammer to lose a decade in jail

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Matthew Ho, the famous cryptocurrency scammer has been jailed for 10 years after stealing identities for his theft.

According to The Straits Times, Singaporean citizen, Ho, aged about 32 years, was sentenced to ten years in prison for using stolen identities to buy cloud computing services and mine Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency. His father has posted a $180,000 bail.

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One of the victims of the fraud was Marc Merrill, a co-founder of Riot Games and the man behind the well-known multiplayer computer game League of Legends.

On a dark web forum, Ho discovered Merrill’s American Express credit card information. In November 2017, he was able to take over the game developer’s Amex account and use it to sign up for the Amazon Web Service (AWS). Merrill got access to “elevated levels” of AWS’s cloud computing capabilities because he was a renowned game creator.

Cryptocurrency stolen using Amazon and Google servers

Ho was able to deceive Amazon by using a forged copy of Merrill’s driver’s license thanks to his expertise in document forgery. However, over the aforementioned period, the South Korean impostor was able to mine $350,000 worth of ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world.

Within a few months, Merrill accrued debts totaling more than $5 million. Only in January 2018 was the fraud exposed. Additionally, he paid a quarter-million dollars for Google’s computing services using Merrill’s identity.

The victim (Merrill) was not previously identified, even though the Department of Justice made public the accusations against Ho in October. Due to the ongoing investigation, Riot Games declined to comment. It’s unknown how his credit card details and private information were taken.

According to a search warrant for the accused’s Facebook account, Ho employed many strategies to deceive Amazon into thinking he was Merrill, the co-creator of the hugely successful, $20 billion-generating League of Legends game. According to the court document, he utilized an email address that seemed to be a real Gmail for the Riot Games co-chairman and made a phony California driver’s license with Merrill’s name on it. According to the feds, he provided Amazon with one of Merrill’s actual home addresses as additional “evidence” of identification.

Alleged V1 SafeMoon scam puts Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, and Lil Yachty under the radar

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In a class-action lawsuit concerning an alleged SafeMoon cryptocurrency scam, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, and Lil Yachty have been listed as defendants. As per the reports by ClassAction.org, Jake Paul and the rappers are only three of the celebrities implicated in the SafeMoon cryptocurrency token V1 “pump-and-dump” scam. Nick Carter, YouTuber Ben Phillips, and SafeMoon LLC and its affiliates are among the other defendants.

The 60-page lawsuit, filed in California’s Central District Court on February 17, alleged that the defendants misled cryptocurrency investors by promoting SafeMoon tokens while profiting behind the scenes. Jake Paul, Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty, and YouTuber Ben Phillips are accused of boosting the value of the SafeMoon tokens through social media.

According to the complaint, SafeMoon founder and CEO Braden John Karony and other employees promote the token while concealing their firm ownership and a large quantity of SafeMoon digital assets available for public trade.

According to the report, the lawsuit intends to protect all persons who acquired SafeMoon tokens between March 8, 2021, now and were affected as a result.

SafeMoon to the moon?

In a successful “pump-and-dump” strategy, the advertisements that boosted the price of SafeMoon saw the price drop by the end of 2021. While the executives departed the firm and a wallet for its cryptocurrency failed to debut. Directors and celebrity promoters gradually sold their personal stakes as well.

The price of the SafeMoon Token fell to $0.0000006521 per token on December 31, 2021. According to the lawsuit, it had plummeted over 80% from its peak during the period, from which it has yet to recover. “As of the lodging of this Suit, the SAFEMOON Token’s trading volume had dropped to roughly $60,000.”

The defendants Karony, SafeMoon COO Jack Haines-Davies, Global HOP Ryan Arriaga, CTO Hank Wyatt, and SafeMoon representative Shaun Witriol established the SafeMoon token in March 2021 as a speculative digital token.

According to ClassAction, by April 2021, the corporation had declared that approximately four trillion tokens had been “burned” and “gone,” with other memoranda focused on the asset’s worth being at an all-time high. However, according to the evidence, SafeMoon’s cryptocurrency token would reach its highest peak in August 2021.

FBI plans to form a new team dedicated to cryptocurrency

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According to the Department of Justice, the FBI is developing a new squad dedicated to cryptocurrencies (DOJ). The Department of Justice stated Thursday that the new squad would collaborate closely with the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.

The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team’s first director will be prosecutor Eun Young Choi, who has a history in cyber-related offenses.

“The department has been at the forefront of investigating and prosecuting crimes involving digital currencies since their inception,” said Director Choi. “The NCET will play a pivotal role in ensuring that as the technology surrounding digital assets grows and evolves, the department in turn accelerates and expands its efforts to combat their illicit abuse by criminals of all kinds. I am excited to lead the NCET’s incredible and talented team of attorneys and to get to work on this critical priority for the department.

Choi will resume her full-time duties on Thursday.

FBI’s decision to control rising crypto crimes

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division stated that criminals had increased their illicit use with the rapid innovation of digital assets and distributed ledger technologies. They use them to fund cyberattacks, ransomware, and extortion operations, as well as to trade in drugs, hacking tools, and illicit items online, perpetrate thefts and frauds, and launder the proceeds of their crimes, according to him.

He mentioned that NCET would be the focal point for the department’s efforts to combat the rise in technology-related crime.

The enforcement team will concentrate on the problems that arise from the illicit usage of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The group will also include prosecutors with expertise in cryptocurrencies, cybercrime, money laundering, and forfeiture from throughout the agency.

The squad will collaborate with others throughout the department, along with the FBI’s new cryptocurrency task force.

The FBI’s new unit will be comprised of crypto professionals who will aid the bureau with analysis, support, and training. According to the department, the team will also reinvent its cryptocurrency technologies to remain ahead of new threats.

With the growing popularity of crypto, crimes are also on the rise. A dedicated team to investigate cryptocurrency crimes ensure that the culprits will be caught on time and also it will help to reduce the crimes from happening.

Cryptocurrency scam: Illegal assets seized in a $162M fake ICO case

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Under the pretext of launching a fake coin called Morris cryptocurrency, a Kerala businessman Nishad K has allegedly collected over $162 million from hundreds of investors following which India’s Enforcement directorate [ED] seized illegal assets worth $4 million belonging to the accused kingpin. The assets attached under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [PMLA] belong to the 31-year-old and his associates who allegedly duped at least 900 individuals.

Drilling deeper, the financial investigation agency has revealed that Nishad K, through his various firms such as Long Rich Global, Long Rich Technologies, and Morris Trading Solutions collected money from gullible investors who fall for the flashy promotional events, glossy websites along with the provision of e-wallets to each investor via web-based applications.

Officials further alleged that the deposits taken from the general public were illegal and without any statutory permission from any regulatory agencies. Moreover, the investigators asserted that the money duped from investors was spent for buying immovable properties, various other cryptocurrencies, and purchasing luxury cars and hotels. The ED stated,

In this regard, the cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum [5.92387265], BTC 90.08267646], BNB [5.51232875], YFI [0.023062], VET [4284.4], ADA [226.479601], USDT [35.88576551] totally valued at $34924 were found and all the above cryptocurrencies, purchased out of the proceeds of crime, were converted into INR and attached by the Enforcement Directorate.

That being said, with more people in India trading in all sorts of cryptos, hackers are having a field day.

Cryptocurrency scams- Regulation is the need of the hour

Some experts feel that the lack of regulation on cryptocurrency in India has increased the risk, as many users don’t have much knowledge of which coins are legitimate and which are not. N.S. Nappinai, an advocate of the Supreme Court of India believes that “at a very basic level” regulation will ensure that there is some sort of clarity with respect to what is permissible and what is criminal. “So that, from an investor’s point of view, it is preventive and protective. And from the law enforcement perspective, it gives them clarity to prosecute.”

Argentina Border Crossing Process Affected as Bitcoin Scammers Take Off with Sensitive Information

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Scams and frauds have become prevalent in the cryptocurrency industry, with the community taking precautions against the devastating consequences they can have. Over the last few years, the world of virtual assets has done its best to combat this pariah, but even then, one or two major issues are still emerging.

The latest scam to rock the financial and decentralized world was a ransomware attack that halted Argentina’s border crossing for four hours. According to reports, the hackers demanded Bitcoin to lift the curb that they had put on the national system.

What makes this ransomware attack different from other instances is the fact that this was the first time a national process was interrupted for the sake of money. Argentina’s official immigration agency, the Dirección Nacional de Migraciones first reported the Netwalker ransomware attack on August 27th after which the discussion has been about paying the $4 million ransom. 

The agency added:

“Being approximately 7 a.m. of the day indicated in the paragraph above, the Directorate of Technology and Communications under the Directorate General Information Systems and Technologies of this Organization received numerous calls from various checkpoints requesting technical support. The Comprehensive Migration Capture System (SICaM) that operates in international crossings was particularly affected, which caused delays in entry and exit to the national territory”

Further details revealed that the organization did not consider it as an ordinary situation and that the event was evaluated against the infrastructure of the Central Data Center and Servers Distributed. The attack targetted the organization’s MS Windows-based files such as ADA SYSVOL and SYSTEM CENTER DPM. Sources have revealed that the $4 million ransom first started out as $2 million, which was jacked up because of the delay in payment. The attackers demanded the ransom to be paid in bitcoin, almost worth 55 BTC. 

 The website run by the scammers can be viewed on Tor with a link to a “Stolen Data” page. Here, users can view a screenshot of the content stolen from the Argentinan agency as proof. Investigative agencies are still trying to deal with the threat with many claiming that the hackers had covered every last step. 

Alabama and Texas Bans South African Firms After Crypto Credit Card Scam

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Securities watchdogs in both Alabama and Texas issued a cease and desist order following a crypto credit card scam promoted by South African firms. Accordance to a joint order issued by both the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) and the Alabama Securities Commission (ASC), companies such as the South African Liquidity Gold Trust, Liquidity Gold Solution and Liquidity Global Card Solution and an individual named Lance Angus Jerrard have issued prohibition orders.

As per reports, the sanctioned firms and Jerrard advertised a fraudulent debit card, dubbed Liquidity Card on social networks and a radio station in Austin, Texas. The perpetrators wrongfully stated that there is a secure way for people to make money while staying at home amid the COVID-19 disaster.

Crypto credit card scam breakdown

The firms allegedly utilized their advertisements to claim that Liquid Card could help investors evade taxes by transacting in stablecoins such as TUSD, USDC and PAX coin. The fraudsters were to recruit and convince new users to commit a minimum of $1,150 in one portion or more of 8,400 parts in the crypto credit card scam. Furthermore, the investors claim that the debit card functions as a traditional debit card.

The project, which was scheduled to start in October, aimed to register over 8 million new users in 36 months. According to the joint order release, the firms mentioned above offer investors a written 100 percent cash back guarantee, which the order terms as fraudulent. Notably, the watchdogs also noted that they had disguised vital information; the risks posed by the project to potential cardholders, and how they make money from the capital employed.

Involved parties have 30 days to issue a response

According to the prohibition order, all the liquidity companies listed are under no obligation to sell securities in Texas or Alabama. Moreover, the firms allegedly used fake pictures to lure investors into the crypto credit card scam. The authorities have given all the involved firms a 30-days grace period to respond to the cease and desist order.

CityUptake and Community Take on Telegram Scammer as Ecosystem Shows its Mettle

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Scams, Ponzi schemes, and exits are a persistent crypto problem that often leaves victims angry but without recourse. Occasionally, a group effort on the part of the cooperating parties will strike back at the scammer and get back what was lost.

The origin of the scam

Telegram is a haven of activity for tokens on the TRON network and deals are often made between trusted parties. While tools have been built to conduct trustless trades, some still prefer to simply send and receive their own wallets. Unfortunately, this may result in scammers assuming usernames that resemble trusted users. One such incident occurred a few weeks back when a scammer impersonated a CityUptake official and had almost 40,000 CITY Alphatokens (~$1,100 USD). Subsequently, the assets were later recovered through a well laid-out plan by company officials and cooperation from a valuable community.

According to CityUptake, it took more than 24 hours and the efforts of four separate people to recover the stolen funds. The issue began when Michael, the CityUptake user, was approached by a scammer who impersonated Rob’s name, an actual CityUptake agent. Michael, being unaware of the deception and the change in the username, forwarded his requirements to the ‘agent.’ Michael was actually wanting to sell some of his CITY Alpha tokens in return for the corresponding amount of TRX tokens.

Retrieving the Funds

The CityUptake Alpha tokens are valuable in the CU community because of its relevance to the changing price climate. The Alpha tokens allow the holder to receive passive gains from a USD-based trade desk which provides a stable platform for dealing with crypto assets.  It was only after the transfer that Michael realized that he was taken for a ride by the scammer. 

Once Michael reported the scam to the CityUptake fold, the company jumped right on board to help recover the funds. Since the scammer’s wallet address was known, it was only logical to track it for any suspicious transfers pertaining to the stolen amount. The wallet was doubly verified when the wallet holder posted a sell order for 40,000 CITY Alpha(the exact amount that was stolen). Following this, the team proceeded with executing a plan to recover the funds. 

The first step was to contact IAmGroot, the administrator for the TRON Collectors trade channel. Once he was filled in with what had occurred, IAmGroot and Micaletol worked together to set up a simulated trade to reel in the scammer. During the trade it was spotted that the scammer’s wallet had moved 10,000 CITY Alpha tokens plus an additional 30,000 CITY Alpha tokens to the address TDQTg5Qx37djroUTBN1reZ5b2vF4Ywe7ae. IAmGroot and Michael scoured through the blockchain to find more pseudonyms used by the scammer and discovered that the wallet in question had conducted similar transactions earlier. 

Once the trade simulation was completed, IAmGroot and Micaleto were successfully able to retrieve the funds and call the scammer out on a public forum. Michael even stated:

“Today is a great day and also a big surprise !!! Last week I was scammed over 40k city and today MicaLETO, Groot4Rocket hangel72 and rudytwo bring it back in a fantastic cooperation and unbelievable collaboration. Big THANKS to this honorable and honest guys, who make that success against scam possible!!!!I’m proud and happy to be a member of CityUptake and TRONCollector under such super together working people!! who fight against this fki.. scammers with great success.”

Such a collective effort is something that sets the CityUptake community apart from the rest of its compatriots. This cohesion and spirit of working together are just one of several factors that make CityUptake and its ecosystem a tight–knit community.

Youtube Refutes Ripple Inc Claims of Perpetrating Cryptocurrency Scams

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Youtube video sharing platform was under pressure from a lawsuit filed by Ripple in April 2020 blaming it for supporting crypto scams. Youtube responded to the April lawsuit citing the site failed to stop XRP scammers and impersonators from doing so.

According to today ‘s report, Law 360, the legal team representing Youtube referred to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act during a dismissal bid; claimed that the publisher was not liable for any information provided on the platform by a third party. In that case, Garlinghouse accused the video-sharing platform of benefiting crypto scammers from Paid Advertisements.YouTube said that it is not Youtube ‘s fault for cryptocurrency scammers using its platform

The lawyers argued that it was completely unwise to accuse the video publisher of content that it had not created. In addition, Youtube’s verification of the scam channels did not in any way change the fact that the channels were the product of third parties.

Since the video-sharing platform did not solicit, encourage or participate in third party video scams, Ripple had no reason to back the accusation.

Youtube Scams Include Identity Theft, Impersonation and Phishing

A Forbes post on Youtube scams indicated that much of the scamming on the platform involved phishing the credit card, promising traffic spikes, identity theft and impersonation. Ripple ‘s lawsuit provided Ripple Executive Brad Garlinghouse had been impersonated by at least 305 youtube channels.

The lawsuit argued how the fraudsters took over entirely unrelated but verified channels, modified the branding, content and layout to make it look more like a legitimate crypto-currency giveaway.

Cryptocurrency scammers on Youtube not only impersonated the CEO of Ripple but also a variety of key figures in the fintech industry, according to the lawsuit’s filings. With that they could scam hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Nevertheless, the legal team of Youtube argued that the right to publicity law protected the names, voices or images of individuals from being used for any commercial gain; without the owners’ prior permission.

Conclusion

Recently, a twitter hack staged the famous “ double your money”;  through twitter profiles of influential leaders such as Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates. Social media platforms and blockchain projects are at the onset of a cyber criminal bubble, and most of them are taking initiative to protect users from fraud and identity theft.