The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that the number of victims who fell to crypto investment scams reached record numbers in 2022. In a new report, the Bureau says that investment scams were the costliest schemes reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) last year. Losses sustained by investment scam victims rose from […]
The post FBI Says Crypto Scams Skyrocketed 183% in 2022, Causing $2,570,000,000 in Losses appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says cryptocurrency investment fraud rose 183% from $907 million in 2021 to $2.57 billion in 2022, based on data from its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The FBI also warned the public of “a spike in cryptocurrency investment schemes.” FBI’s Crypto Crime Statistics The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) […]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are reportedly investigating the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin terra usd (UST) and the firm Terraform Labs. Unnamed sources say that former staff members from Terraform Labs, the company behind the Terra blockchain project, have been questioned by U.S. law enforcement. Unusual Relationship: […]
The FBI has issued a public service announcement (PSA) warning on the utilization of play-to-earn games as part of a scheme to defraud users of funds stored in the form of cryptocurrency. Criminals are introducing victims to this kind of game and then use malware to extract the funds from cryptocurrency wallets linked to the […]
Norwegian authorities, in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), have allegedly seized about $6 million that was stolen in last year’s Axie Infinity heist. “It is the biggest crypto seizure Norwegian police have ever made,” said Norway’s Økokrim. Norway and FBI Recoup Some Stolen Funds From […]
The seized property included a Bored Ape Yacht Club and Doodles NFT, 85.6 Ether and a flashy Audemars Piguet watch which ultimately helped ZachXBT identify the alleged scammer.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized two non-fungible tokens (NFTs) worth more than $100,000 and 86.5 Ether (ETH) from a reported phishing scammer.
The alleged scammer in question, Chase Senecal — known as Horror (HZ) online — was initially exposed via a lengthy investigation by independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT posted back in September.
In the FBI’s official notification posted on Feb. 3, it outlined that Seneca’s property — which also included an Audemars Piguet (AP) Royal Oak Watch worth $41,000 — was “seized for federal forfeiture for violation of federal law.”
The FBI’s notification did not detail much other information on the ordeal apart from noting that all of the property was seized on Oct. 24. The specific NFTs include Bored Ape Yacht Club#9658, and Doodle #3114 and were valued at $95,495 and $9,361 at the time of seizure.
The 86.5 ETH was valued at $116,433 at the time of seizure, but is now worth $144,000 at the time of writing.
It is unclear what the full scope of legal proceedings that have taken place against Senecal are at this stage. However, according to the FBI’s law enforcement bulletin, federal forfeiture is a law enforcement tool that enables the government to “remove—without compensation for the individual—ownership of property involved in a crime.”
“It may occur in a civil procedure, like a lawsuit against the item, or after the conviction of an individual in a criminal trial,” the FBI states.
While the FBI has not come out with an official tip of the hat to ZachXBT, the on-chain sleuth noted via Twitter on Feb. 3 that the property seizure did “come as a result” of his investigation.
2/ HZ was responsible for using a Twitter panel to take over accounts like @Zeneca @nounsdao @ezu_xyz @deekaymotion @JRNYclub as well as Discord server attacks @AnataNFT @Lacoste
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) February 3, 2023
The thread which started it all I’ve attached below. https://t.co/6dsfZ5jnGl pic.twitter.com/8EYl1yuIik
“I look forward to hopefully seeing more phishing scammers suffer a similar fate in the future for harming so many people in this space,” ZachXBT wrote.
With the seizure of a Bored Ape NFT, people in the community have joked that the FBI will change its profile picture to Ape #9658.
Notably, the flashy AP watch was one of the key identifiers that helped ZachXBT unmask Senecal’s identity and on-chain activity during the investigation.
In a medium post from Sept. 2, ZachXBT explained that after seeing Horroz (HZ) brag about the new watch on social media, he asked “around a few mutual friends who sell watches” and eventually managed to get in contact with the person who sold that specific AP watch to Senecal.
Unfortunately for Senecal, the payment was said to have been made on the blockchain via the use of USD Coin (USDC).
“The address HZ used to pay the watch seller $47.5k was DIRECTLY funded by multiple addresses used to scam people with hacked Twitter accounts such as @deekaymotion, @Zeneca_33, @ezu_xyz, [and] @JRNYclub,” ZachXBT wrote.
This is not the first time ZachXBT’s research has played a key role in helping government authorities. In October, France’s national cyber unit cited ZachXBT’s work in helping it catch and charge a group of alleged fraudsters on suspicion of stealing $2.5 million worth of NFTs via phishing scams.
A BBC report says that new transparency requirements in the UK show that Ruja Ignatova, the alleged co-founder of the $4 billion pyramid scheme OneCoin, is the owner of a plush penthouse property in London that was listed for sale. According to the report, the luxury apartment that was initially listed for $15.49 million was […]
The post ‘Cryptoqueen’ Wanted by FBI for Role in $4,000,000,000 Pyramid Scheme Sells Luxury Apartment in UK: Report appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
Law enforcement authorities from over a dozen countries in Europe and North America have taken part in disrupting the activities of the Hive ransomware group, the U.S. Justice Department and Europol announced. Hive is believed to have targeted various organizations worldwide in the past couple of years, often extorting payments in cryptocurrency. Captured Decryption Keys […]
The FBI also confirmed earlier reports this month by figures such as ZachXBT that the hackers had started moving a large chunk of the funds around via privacy protocols.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed the Lazarus Group and APT38 as the culprits behind the $100 million Harmony Bridge Hack from June 2022.
The North Korea-linked cyber group had long been suspected of being behind the attack but their involvement hadn’t been confirmed by authorities until now.
According to a Jan. 23 statement, the FBI noted that “through our investigation, we were able to confirm that the Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with the DPRK, are responsible for the theft of $100 million of virtual currency from Harmony’s Horizon bridge.”
The Harmony Bridge hack in 2022 was the result of security holes in Harmony’s Horizon Ethereum bridge which allowed the cyber attackers to swipe a number of assets stored in the bridge via 11 transactions.
The FBI also outlined that the North Korean hackers started shifting around $60 million worth of the stolen funds earlier this month via the Ethereum-based privacy protocol RAILGUN. Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT previously highlighted such via Twitter on Jan. 16.
Notably, Binance also detected the hackers were trying to launder the funds through the Huobi crypto exchange, and then promptly assisted it in freezing and recovering the digital assets deposited by the hackers, according to CEO Changpeng Zhao.
“On Friday, January 13, 2023, North Korean cyber actors used RAILGUN, a privacy protocol, to launder over $60 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) stolen during the June 2022 heist,” the FBI stated, adding that “a portion of these funds were frozen, in coordination with some of the virtual asset service providers. The remaining bitcoin subsequently moved to the following addresses.”
In its statement, the FBI said its cyber and virtual assets units, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Justice Department's crypto unit, have continued “to identify and disrupt North Korea’s theft and laundering of virtual currency, which is used to support North Korea’s ballistic missile and Weapons of Mass Destruction programs."
Related: Google Ads-delivered malware drains NFT influencer’s entire crypto wallet
The Lazarus group is a well known hacking syndicate that has reportedly had a hand in a number of key exploits in the crypto industry, and has alleged to have been behind the $600 million Ronin Bridge hack from March last year.
In April 2022, the United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control indicated as such, by updating its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) to include the Lazarus Group following the hack.
That same month, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also fired off a warning alert concerning North Korean state-sponsored cyber threats that target blockchain companies in response to the Ronin Bridge hack.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has seized bitcoin worth millions of dollars from overseas scammers targeting the elderly. The scammers posed as members of U.S. law enforcement agencies and tricked the victims into transferring money to them for “safekeeping.” FBI Says It Has Seized Bitcoin From Scammers Overseas The U.S. Attorney for […]