EuroJust, the EU body in charge of criminal justice, has conducted searches all across Europe in an effort to put an end to a crypto fraud that resulted in losses of €15 million.
EU Takes Action Against Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Investments
EuroJust joined up with law enforcement in Italy and Albania to combat a fraudulent online investment scheme using cryptocurrency and confiscate assets worth three million euros. According to the findings of the agency, the fraudulent activity involving online investments was carried out by a network of criminal organizations operating out of these nations.
Tirana served as the location of the organized criminal group’s call centre operations. When calling victims, the gang concealed their identity by connecting via virtual private networks (VPNs) and using anonymous phone numbers. They take the money that was sent after requesting the victims to register on a portal, then they reset the account that was just made. After they are finished, the crew steals the money and then vanishes.
The procedure was described in full by EuroJust as follows:
It is believed that the suspects called the victim on the phone while using a delocalized virtual private network and a number that could not be traced to the culprits. They instructed the victim to make an account on the site, and then, after the transfer was through, they deleted the newly formed account, stole the money, and made it impossible to track.
The perpetrators of the crime were able to win their victims’ confidence by facilitating the acquisition of immediate cash benefits in exchange for a modest initial commitment. After using what seemed to be a trustworthy online trading platform, victims reported being approached by “brokers” who offered profitable investments in cryptocurrencies with no associated risk.
After then, the criminal organization entered the savings bank account of the victim and asked them to invest their funds in the fraud.
Since September 2022, a crypto trade monitoring business called Solidus Labs, located in New York, estimates that 2 million consumers have been taken in by various types of cryptocurrency scams.
According to the investigation, five centralized exchanges had a total potential loss of more than one billion dollars due to these frauds. There were 17 cryptocurrency exchanges that had exposure of more than $100 million, while 93 exchanges had exposure of more than $1 million.
According to the report:
The majority of the main cryptocurrency exchanges are affected. Under the legal frameworks in place in each and every country in which they do business, these exchanges are obligated to take measures to combat the laundering of illicit funds. In addition, extra regulatory obligations for the protection of investors and the prevention of market abuse are imposed on them in many different countries.
According to Solidus, 2022 was the year when honeypots became the most successful method of committing cryptocurrency fraud. After a short period of time, the Squid Game token fraud rose by a factor of 45,000%, and when it was over, the unknown creators ran away with thousands of dollars in investor cash.
