So, the FBI just took down another cybercrime group, this time a Chinese outfit called Outsider Enterprise. They were really big, with estimates putting their losses at around $1.9 billion.
I guess the scale of their operation made it a priority to shut them down before they could scam more people. It's a reminder that anyone can be a target now, whether you're into credit cards or crypto.
I know that It's hard to teach it to everyone, but the advice remains the same; do never click a link in an email service that you didn't required or call a phone number. If such a service is supposedly contacting you, try to connect to it via normal methods you used to and ask if they have really sent you that email. With current AI models, anyone can ask an AI to send dozens of custom messages automatically in a particular service name that was first asked to access via users gmail.
That is one less scam ring out there, i know there are thousands more, but any one taken down is a success, so yeah. A lot of users in this forum are very smart when it comes to spoting scams and avoiding it, but we would be shocked at how easily so many people out there are vulnerable to scams like this, even the 'cheapest' kind.
$1.9B in losses is huge, if correct, and that goes to show the reach this syndicate had. Too bad authorities were only able to confiscate a 'meagre' $100k from this operation.
Worldwide crime networks still operate with USDT.
It's so crazy to me that a fully centralised and seizable coin is the go to for criminals.
They don't give a rip about it being both not private and also centralised.
They could have been using Monero or BTC but for some reason noooo it's always tether.
And tether on the other hand, doesn't seem to care all that much.
100k seized out of billions is also very miniscule. These criminals are probably going to continue if the operation was so profitable.
So many of these criminals are not very knowledgeable about cryptocurrency, so a lot of them wouldn't know that usdt can be confiscated, even when you store it in your own wallet. So many people see BTC and believe every crypto is like BTC: decentralized, censorship resistant, etc, but they cannot be more wrong.
I would never support the ability to confiscate peoples coins. However, if there was enough evidence linking the funds to criminal proceeds, Tether may have confiscated it.
Yes, one less ring but there could be another group of individuals who might think of establishing a new group to take over just like in a drug empire. Hopefully though, there will also be thousands of people that might have read it and so they are aware of the modus and not to fall and become the next victim.
I'm thinking that they might just confiscated just $100k in the beginning, but they are going to go down deep in the rabbit's hole to find more money that this crime group might be hiding in crypto.
This is interesting news, I am happy that the FBI has succeeded in dismantling and arresting a cybercriminal group operating in the field of Phishing networks, indeed there have been quite a lot of Phishing links recently, It is possible that there are countless millions of victims of fraudulent acts and actions committed by them.
In short, all of us here need to be vigilant and careful about using Al as confidential or personal information, even though the FBI has caught several online criminals, therapy does not rule out the possibility that other cybercriminal groups that have not been caught are still carrying out their actions on the internet.
The fear is no longer about a having a phishing scam, but having a network of it. Scam is getting more coordinated and sophiscated to deal with.
Thanks to FBI, at least we have one down and since their network is bursted, more will be uncovered.
I assume that now we will not hear that stablecoins are a tool used by criminals, because when it comes to BTC, we have heard/read that thousands of times. As things stand, so-called digital stablecoins are an ideal tool for criminals because they can use them to quickly and cheaply transfer billions without too much fear of being detected.
I wonder where the rest of the money is and if anyone will do anything about it?
The first question that comes to my mind is, where is the Chinese government? If this criminal network is located in China, and as is said, it is a huge network with estimated losses of about $1.9 billion, then why hasn't the Chinese government discovered it? And why hasn't there been coordination with China to pursue, dismantle, and arrest the members of this network located on its territory?
The other matter is the confiscation of about 100,000 US dollars of USDT currency. This is a trivial amount that is nothing compared to the billions of dollars stolen according to the news.
It will most likely be seized for the benefit of the US government 😉.
You can also said that with the Russian government, there are a lot of syndicated crime groups inside Russia, but they don't do anything about it unless there are pressures from interpol. So same here, maybe the Chinese government doesn't want to cooperate and so the US takes actions as most of their victims is American.
And it's not worth millions, but billions so they really have to step up and work with different services to bring this criminal empire.
Doesn't matter if they initially got $100k, what's important is that they stop them from victimizing more people.
Don't fool yourself that they did something significant, because there are a lot of such networks and no matter how many you take down, at least 2-3 new ones appear that operate for years before becoming the target of an investigation. This is a battle that has already been lost, but for the sake of the public and the reputation of those who deal with it, it must be fought.
Have they identified/caught the people behind it?
I don't know what the international laws are in this regard, but it is supposed to be or logical that there should be joint efforts with the country on whose territory the criminal network is located. It is unreasonable for the United States or Interpol to intervene to investigate a criminal network on the territory of China or Russia without cooperation with the authorities of these countries.
I don't know if it's due to political disagreements between these countries or due to the absence of international laws regulating these matters.
Many groups are international, for example, AudiA6: "two key administrators of the platform are 37-year-old Ukrainian citizen Ruslan Tkachuk and 25-year-old Russian citizen Alexander Ledenev," despite the conflict between the two countries.
Many people are involved in fraud in Russia from other countries, but the police only catch dupes who act as couriers or money mules.
Well this is a nice one, cracking down most of this scammers will help save the integrity of the crypto space, so i will say kudos to the FBI for a job well done, however, with the way AI is advancing currently everyone should be really careful because its not everything that the FBI will see, on our own lets be more careful with our wallets and transactions so we dont fall victim to this scammers, ensure you log into only secured sites, mind the links you click, for those that like browsing with other people browsers just ensure it is safe, this news is like an eye opener to me moving forward i will go for further trainings on how to secure my crypto.