Ukraine arrests gang who ran 20 crypto-exchanges and laundered money for ransomw

Jating

hero member

Activity: 2842

Merit: 772

Quote from: ShowOff on August 21, 2020, 05:06:53 AM

Quote from: crwth on August 21, 2020, 12:40:22 AM

I’m curious about what exchanges are involved in this type of dealings because it’s important to be far away from that exchange as possible.

It seems that everyone here is also curious about the exchange involved in this case. So far I havent had any exchange mentioned in the comment. I dont think that the 20 exchange are in the top 10-20 exchange. It is likely that all the exchange involved are their local exchange.

Yes, it could be local exchanges or just some third tier exchanges that no one used except those criminals to mix and hide their transactions. But as far as Binance helping, it's a bit scary, there seems to be a conflict of interest here. Did those exchanges uses Binance as well that's why they caught them?

And what if there exchange is being used as well by some group, for sure they are going to confiscate and we won't hear anything from them. They are really getting too powerful, in my opinion.

ShowOff

legendary

Activity: 2618

Merit: 1181

Quote from: crwth on August 21, 2020, 12:40:22 AM

I’m curious about what exchanges are involved in this type of dealings because it’s important to be far away from that exchange as possible.

It seems that everyone here is also curious about the exchange involved in this case. So far I havent had any exchange mentioned in the comment. I dont think that the 20 exchange are in the top 10-20 exchange. It is likely that all the exchange involved are their local exchange.

molsewid

hero member

Activity: 2170

Merit: 530

Binance "BulletProof Exchanger" takes a big part to arrests cybercrime gangs. I hope more launderers will arrest soon and their customers too.
At least right now their launderers are already arrested, they should use them to get their clients.

Oasisman

hero member

Activity: 2716

Merit: 552

Quote from: avikz on August 21, 2020, 12:54:14 AM

I suppose we need more and more tools like chainanalysis to track the illegal proceedings coming into crypto market through various mixing services. The criminals are majorly responsible for giving bitcoin a bad name amongst the non-crypto population. So always happy to see such news!

But some crypto enthusiast sees these chain analysis or whatever you call it If there's a tool or database to track down transactions a threat of privacy. Specially in the mixing services.
I guess we're still fine with how the Cyber crime division are handling crypto related crimes without compromising the users privacy.
IMO, If some government plan on tracking down and control these crypto criminals, most likely they will regulate Bitcoin then.

Debonaire217

sr. member

Activity: 644

Merit: 364

In Code We Trust

Quote from: crwth on August 21, 2020, 12:40:22 AM

I’m curious about what exchanges are involved in this type of dealings because it’s important to be far away from that exchange as possible. Imagine withdrawing your profits from trading and some dirty bitcoin is traced back to your withdrawal address, you could be in trouble for that. I hope no one gets into trouble like that with those exchanges. I don't think those exchanges are part of the top 10. They shouldn't be.

Perhaps, top 10 exchanges has their founders well known to the public, and there's no way their exchange will be that good having fraudulent activities and when tracked down, the entire exchange will need to be closed. But I think the real risk here is the wallet address owned by the users, basically, exchange aren't providing the seed and the private keys for the users, so they could possibly have a control for each address available. I don't know, but is there are possibility that they could manipulate addresses to cover up their fraudulent activities?

avikz

legendary

Activity: 3080

Merit: 1500

It's comforting to see that crypto criminals are getting arrested. It's really encouraging to see criminals behind the bars and especially crypto criminals who tries to leverage the anonymity factor of cryptocurrencies.

I suppose we need more and more tools like chainanalysis to track the illegal proceedings coming into crypto market through various mixing services. The criminals are majorly responsible for giving bitcoin a bad name amongst the non-crypto population. So always happy to see such news!

crwth

copper member

Activity: 2940

Merit: 1280

https://linktr.ee/crwthopia

I’m curious about what exchanges are involved in this type of dealings because it’s important to be far away from that exchange as possible. Imagine withdrawing your profits from trading and some dirty bitcoin is traced back to your withdrawal address, you could be in trouble for that. I hope no one gets into trouble like that with those exchanges. I don't think those exchanges are part of the top 10. They shouldn't be.

davis196

hero member

Activity: 3178

Merit: 937

Theres' no clear info,but I assume that those 20 crypto exchanges were clearnet websites.Maybe that's why the criminals were caught.
I think that most of the crypto exchanges involved in illegal activities and money laundering are .onion websites located in the darkweb.
Anyway,this is great news and I believe that more crypt scammers and criminals will be caught and put in jail in the future,even in countries,that have big problems with organized crime and corruption,like Ukraine.

hatshepsut93

legendary

Activity: 3038

Merit: 2162

Quote from: kryptqnick on August 20, 2020, 10:50:48 AM

I still use exchanges listed on Bestchange because I cannot find one that would be easy to use, reliable and have the fees which are as low. I try to choose exchanges with lots of positive reviews, and I've never been scammed this way, but of course there are many exchanges there, and some of them might be scamming people or be used for illegal activities.

Quote from: rexxarofmoknathal on August 19, 2020, 09:15:39 AM

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

To me paying a bit higher fees for much lower risk of getting scammed is well worth it. Centralized exchanges can pull exit scams too, but at least they are big companies owned by public persons, while these small exchange services have unknown owners and unknown offices. And even if they are not scams, they might be acting as fronts for these money launderers, so your money would still be at risk - you might attract attention of law enforcements if you get some very dirty coins from there.

kryptqnick

legendary

Activity: 3248

Merit: 1402

Join the world-leading crypto sportsbook NOW!

Quote from: hatshepsut93 on August 19, 2020, 11:31:11 PM

When I just got into Bitcoin, for the first few months I used to sell my coins on those exchanges from Bestchange. Luickily I soon found the proper crypto trading platform, which operates legally and has much better fees than those sketchy exchange services. And not only they are criminal, a lot of them are also scams, they steal money whenever someone tries to move large sums through them - saw some stories in the Russian local board.

I still use exchanges listed on Bestchange because I cannot find one that would be easy to use, reliable and have the fees which are as low. I try to choose exchanges with lots of positive reviews, and I've never been scammed this way, but of course there are many exchanges there, and some of them might be scamming people or be used for illegal activities.

Quote from: rexxarofmoknathal on August 19, 2020, 09:15:39 AM

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

It is interesting though that the law just managed to catch the gang given their dubious activities for nearly 2 years Shocked

Yes, I'm pretty sure they aren't mainstream, and I'm glad that Binance helped with the investigation. As for exchanges operating for 2 years, I don't find it weird because Ukrainian law enforcement doesn't typically get involved with cybercrime, not to mention that there's always a chance the criminals were bribing some police officers to ensure they won't get involved.

bearexin

full member

Activity: 1162

Merit: 168

So many cryptocurrency scammers are being caught, this shows that criminals cannot hide under cryptocurrency, they will always be caught when they carry out any activity, all it takes is just time and they will finally get caught. Just like the Twitter hackers, they must have thought they have gotten away with it, and all of a sudden they got caught lol.

The new type of scam I’m seeing is now is the blackmailing type of scam, where they will send you an email and they will threaten you about exposing some things about you and claiming that they have been recording all your activities through a malware they installed on your device, after that they will tell you to send Bitcoin to their address. Dumb people.

figmentofmyass

legendary

Activity: 1652

Merit: 1483

Quote from: cryptomaniac_xxx on August 19, 2020, 03:08:15 AM

The article though didn't name the 20 exchanges that supposedly run by these groups. It will be interesting to see the names.

i doubt you'd recognize most of the names---probably fly-by-night russian domains. that's why there is no mainstream media news about this. there was no large/well-known exchange shut down.

Quote from: cryptomaniac_xxx on August 19, 2020, 03:08:15 AM

What can you say about Binance pet project though?

not a fan at all:

Quote

The project's goal is to identify hubs of malicious activity in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, track down the operators, and work with authorities to arrest and shut them down.

binance is brown-nosing, trying to earn points with governments, so they'll either continue letting them operate or only slap them on the wrist if sanctioned. as a bitcoiner, i hate to see this sorta shit. innocent people with tainted outputs from p2p trading, coinjoins, mixing, etc can get caught in the net.

AniviaBtc

sr. member

Activity: 1120

Merit: 272

First 100% Liquid Stablecoin Backed by Gold

Quote from: Lucius on August 19, 2020, 08:12:47 AM

If we assume that everything in the article is correct, then this is good news - and it is also good news that there are still quite clumsy hackers who manage to reach tens of millions of dollars and do not know how to properly protect their identity. Instead of enjoying in some exotic destination far from the reach of any justice, as we can see in the photo in the article, these three geniuses kissed the floor in their luxurious apartment.

That is their own mistake, their own fault to become detected and arrested by the authorities. Hackers are not perfect, they are smart in some point but there's no way that they are not making mistakes when it comes to making crimes like this. Even those huge scammers are getting punished by the law, just like what they've said, "No one is above the law". All of us should be responsible with our accounts and assets to prevent being a victim of these scams. Ukraine government should be proud of themselves because it is not really not that easy to find scammers due to their anonymity but as people are getting aware and intelligent when it comes to these schemes, scammers are getting caught easily.

hatshepsut93

legendary

Activity: 3038

Merit: 2162

When I just got into Bitcoin, for the first few months I used to sell my coins on those exchanges from Bestchange. Luickily I soon found the proper crypto trading platform, which operates legally and has much better fees than those sketchy exchange services. And not only they are criminal, a lot of them are also scams, they steal money whenever someone tries to move large sums through them - saw some stories in the Russian local board.

AjithBtc

sr. member

Activity: 1666

Merit: 276

Vave.com - Crypto Casino

The group has got a big plan, running 20 cryptocurrency exchanges and laundering money out of it. A big step forward arresting the gang, and this will surely help the cryptocurrency users to stay secure and not go behind any untrusted platforms for the cryptocurrency related needs. These incidents were good in one way, as people get a strength that hackers can be caught and the stolen funds can be recovered. On the other side, it also creates panic among people not to invest or use cryptocurrencies.

Sadlife

sr. member

Activity: 1400

Merit: 269

It's good, how criminal acts committed in Cryptocurrency can be traced and put behind bars those people who commits unlawful activities. These will boost the reputation of Cryptocurrency as a whole, and scare criminals from doing money laundering and tax evasion, which is i think good for mass adoption.

Wexnident

hero member

Activity: 2702

Merit: 672

I don't request loans~

Where was ransomware included though? Other than that, Binance is welcome to run their project, especially since it aims to counter these malicious groups that basically put a negative bias to the name of Bitcoin. Not to mention that with time, said groups would probably improve and remove traces from their scams, rooting them up early on could prove to be quite helpful.

Quote from: MusaMohamed on August 19, 2020, 07:24:54 AM

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently? If they do not run multi scam exchanges, they won't be able to have enough resources to do so. Is it a real news or only a FUD to force Bitcoin down again, at the right time with strong resistant price at $13k, bad news was released?

It's most likely real. Binance was involved, and some investigation by other exchange could easily reveal whether it was true or not, especially since officials of Ukraine were personally involved in the arrest, it's not like they can put false charges for them now can they? Plus, if they had the skill, making everything automated or at least semi should prove to be easy. They probably started it up way back 2018, and officially launched it by that year.

dothebeats

legendary

Activity: 3542

Merit: 1352

Cashback 15%

Binance's initiative to bring these other shady exchanges and possible money laundering schemes down is actually a good thing. In collaboration with local governments, they are doing everyone a favor to eliminate those that use cryptocurrencies to further their illegal schemes and tarnish the name of the said tech. Taint analysis of blockchain used in this sort of preventing criminal activities and catching criminals is one I approve mostly of, though can easily be used in spying activities if the tech falls on the wrong hands.

On a side note, Binance doing some investigative work to bring down other fraud exchanges is also (somehow) inviting people to try their platform one way or another, since they are already involved in busting illegal activities which might make people trust Binance more since they are posing as one of the good guys in the industry.

Argoo

sr. member

Activity: 2352

Merit: 245

Quote from: MusaMohamed on August 19, 2020, 07:24:54 AM

Who or group can run 20 exchanges concurrently? If they do not run multi scam exchanges, they won't be able to have enough resources to do so. Is it a real news or only a FUD to force Bitcoin down again, at the right time with strong resistant price at $13k, bad news was released?

Apparently, the information about 20 exchanges involved in this crime scandal is too exaggerated. However, it is pleasant to see not the first successful operation of law enforcement agencies in Ukraine to combat cybercrime, which are associated with the use of cryptocurrency for illegal purposes. Moreover, as we can see, close cooperation has been established with international cryptocurrency exchanges, and the best of them. Such cooperation is the key to a successful fight against hacking, fraud and other crimes, where participants in the cryptocurrency market become victims.

rexxarofmoknathal

sr. member

Activity: 980

Merit: 260

Quote from: kryptqnick on August 19, 2020, 06:39:04 AM

I've read an article about this today. Ukrainian authorities cooperated with Binance and indeed arrested 3 people who have spent 42 million dollars on their operations over 2 years. The report says that the gang provided services to those wishing to launder money, so it's not necessarily about ransomware money. I also don't see the info about 20 exchanges in the report, but I did find another credible source that mentions the exchanges. Judging by the info about BTC-e exchange, I think the 20 exchanges mentioned are also like this. I mean that they are local, not your typical international crypto exchanges, nothing a typical crypto user would find familiar. To see local exchanges which Ukrainians use, you can go to Bestchange.com to get the general idea. I hope the illegal exchanges will soon be closed, and I'm proud of my country for this successful operation.

At least the e-exchanges are not the main stream ones. The fact that Binance played an active role against this type of fraudulence speaks for itself - Bianance will not tolerate such behaviour, and in fact no e-exchange should either.

It is interesting though that the law just managed to catch the gang given their dubious activities for nearly 2 years Shocked

Topic: Ukraine arrests gang who ran 20 crypto-exchanges and laundered money for ransomw (Read 358 times)