Criminals/thieves/hackers who have been tracked via the blockchain?

[DarknetMarkets]

I have heard of several people having their Coinbase accounts closed for sending btc to darknet markets, and I recall that guy who sent coins he won fraudulently from a casino directly to a exchange (I think it was bitstamp, maybe bter?) and having them frozen.

Are there any other examples you folks can think of where people have been tracked over the blockchain? Has law enforcement ever caught anyone this way?

If there is a list or another post/thread on this subject I would appreciate being pointed to it.

Thanks

[--Encrypted--]

I have heard of several people having their Coinbase accounts closed for sending btc to darknet markets, and I recall that guy who sent coins he won fraudulently from a casino directly to a exchange (I think it was bitstamp, maybe bter?) and having them frozen.

Are there any other examples you folks can think of where people have been tracked over the blockchain? Has law enforcement ever caught anyone this way?

If there is a list or another post/thread on this subject I would appreciate being pointed to it.

Thanks

I can only think of one person that got tracked over the blockchain. the sheep marketplace owner (forgot his name)


oh, and try searching for "Moolah bitcoins"

[AgentofCoin]

I heard about maybe 2 weeks ago(?) that coinbase closed a guys account from buying from a known online knife dealer.
Never followed up to see if this was true or they closed the account because he was doing "other things" as well.

Edit: Nevermind. Here is what I was referring to.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/38qzgt/circle_will_close_your_account_if_you_use_it_to/

[cryptworld]

I think it was a casino to btc-e and they recover the bitcoins, but I can't remember the name of the casino

[bitnanigans]

Criminals/thieves/hackers tracked - all of them.
Caught - maybe less than 1%.

[DarknetMarkets]

Criminals/thieves/hackers tracked - all of them.
Caught - maybe less than 1%.

How do you figure that? There are many criminals who LE would love to catch, but are getting away because they mixed their coins properly.

[ajareselde]

Coinbase is claimed to even close down accounts for wide range of reasons, from dice site deposits, to casino and even resellng bitcoins on localbitcoins.
If they monitor these cases, i can only imagine what agencies are doing in their survailance, and blockchain analysis. My guess is how they aim for bigger fishes, and sizable seizures to justify their operation.
The only thing i dont get is, why do people still avoid using coin mixing services.

cheers

[odolvlobo]

Here are two recent ones:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-secret-service-agent-plead-guilty-silk-road-bitcoin-theft-n379416
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/23/us-usa-bitcoin-silkroad-idUSKBN0P31EP20150623

They were caught by agents tracking where Silk Road bitcoins were going.

[pooya87]

coinbase only catches small time criminals, if we can call someone who uses a casino or what AgentofCoin said a criminal. these numbers are just so small in comparison to the number of criminals using bitcoin.
besides they don't really use a third party for their illegal activities, and they use mixers to cover their tracks.

[ammy009]

a central database system must be developed to track criminals, thieves, hackers, fraudsters etc via the blockchain. it's badly needed.

[Amph]

Here are two recent ones:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex-secret-service-agent-plead-guilty-silk-road-bitcoin-theft-n379416
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/23/us-usa-bitcoin-silkroad-idUSKBN0P31EP20150623

They were caught by agents tracking where Silk Road bitcoins were going.

i always wonder, if they were caught because of their negligence about using correctly a mixer, or if because you can track anyone in the end if you work hard enough

because they have still not caught the hacker from bitstamp, so two are the cases, they are not working hard or that hacker know how to hide himself 100%

[ShetKid]

The law enforcements probably don't care about individuals who buy drugs on the marketplace. They mostly go after the big sharks who use services like Coinbase for their transactions. As for anyone else getting tracked, just recently the hacker of Bitdice had their money frozen after the exchange realized it was the hacked coins that were transferred to the account.

[Lorenzo]

I have heard of several people having their Coinbase accounts closed for sending btc to darknet markets, and I recall that guy who sent coins he won fraudulently from a casino directly to a exchange (I think it was bitstamp, maybe bter?) and having them frozen.

Are there any other examples you folks can think of where people have been tracked over the blockchain? Has law enforcement ever caught anyone this way?

If there is a list or another post/thread on this subject I would appreciate being pointed to it.

Thanks

If altcoins also count, then there's the 24 million qora (worth 13 BTC) and 0.8 BTC which were stolen when ziplibrary who was the owner of Qora's first exchange - ShareXcoin, suddenly shut down his site and ran off with the funds in June 2014.

Soon after the site went offline, he made the mistake of depositing these coins into Poloniex to dump and busoni - the owner of Poloniex, was able to determine that these coins were in fact stolen and seized them. Unfortunately for those who had lost funds at ShareXcoin however, all records of users' balances went down with the exchange so there was no way to return these coins to their rightful owners and thus the decision was made to donate all of it to the Qora Foundation instead:

We have frozen the account to which the address QjVweW35i1D8FqCNaGDuQ4xWHQyYHaT3Gp belongs -- there is some odd activity there. Can we verify that the QXx7SnaEPvEczS8rX7HZKH3pY4vXG8ATxK address belongs to Sharexcoin? Have multiple people received withdrawals from that address?

Since seizing 0.8 BTC and 24M Qora from suspicious accounts, ShareXcoin has remained silent and the account holders on Poloniex have not objected. It seems pretty safe to assume that the funds I have seized are indeed stolen.
The question now is what to do with them. I do not see a way of distributing them to affected people, because there is no source of proof about ShareXcoin balances. Has this question been discussed?

We have decided the best way to handle the QORA issue, is to relinquish the confiscated funds to the Qora foundation.  It is the most fair way for us to handle this matter.

It is physically impossible for us to identify and authenticate individual claims.

We are an honest firm, and will always do what is best for the community.

At this moment, the funds are still in our possession, and I encourage you to follow our public announcements on our homepage.

ShareXcoin was an altcoin exchange so in addition to these coins which were seized/recovered, they had more stolen coins which they were able to successfully get away with.

[Chef Ramsay]

This low rate of these bastards getting actually caught is what the aspiring rip-off artists take solace in as they develop their plan of attack. Coin mixing is a mixed bag as they allow some people arrange what they plan to pay in taxes but then offer the lowlifes opportunities to make use of their spoilage when they reappear in their next safety zone.

[thebenjamincode]

hey i thought bitcoin was supposed to be anonymous? then how did they tracked it?

[Lorenzo]

hey i thought bitcoin was supposed to be anonymous? then how did they tracked it?

Bitcoin isn't anonymous. It's pseudonymous. Your identity isn't recorded but your pseudonym (address) is. Addresses can be linked via transactions which are visible in the blockchain which is a public record of every single transaction ever made. By tracing these transactions through the blockchain, it is often possible to uncover the identity of a Bitcoin user. For example, if I frequently gambled at gambling sites and then withdrew my coins to an exchange, that exchange might be able to tell that I am a compulsive gambler.

Another example: If someone sold drugs or porn on the deep web and their addresses were analyzed, you might see incoming transactions coming from a number of different addresses. Some of these addresses might be linked to known exchange addresses. Others might be addresses that were once posted on a forum somewhere. Since most exchanges and forums keep records of emails, IP addresses, etc. it might be possible uncover the identity of a drug or porn user simply by asking the owner of the exchange or forum.

The ability to link transaction between addresses can be made more difficult by using change addresses. By using mixing services like Bitmixer.io that mix one's funds with those of others', it can be made nearly impossible with current (but possibly not future) blockchain analysis methods.

[GingerAle]

hey i thought bitcoin was supposed to be anonymous? then how did they tracked it?

Really hoping your were just playing devils advocate here, or asking to inform.

[Herbert2020]

~~
The ability to link transaction between addresses can be made more difficult by using change addresses. By using mixing services like Bitmixer.io that mix one's funds with those of others', it can be made nearly impossible with current (but possibly not future) blockchain analysis methods.

how can it be possible to track transactions that go through a coin mixer?
it thought that you enter your amount to an address and get out that amount from another batch of addresses, how can anyone track it then?
is it with the amount going in and out? because i think you can take it out in parts(?)

[Lorenzo]

hey i thought bitcoin was supposed to be anonymous? then how did they tracked it?

Really hoping your were just playing devils advocate here, or asking to inform.

The idea that Bitcoin is anonymous is actually a pretty common misconception. Many - if not most, mainstream news articles either don't know about the difference between anonymity and pseudonymity or they don't bother to distinguish between the two. And really, for the vast majority of people out there, Bitcoin is probably already "anonymous enough" as it is.

Actual anonymous coins like Monero and DASH exist too, of course. Transactions made using these coins aren't traceable.

[satnof]

Everything has 0-day vulnerabilities loppipls. It's statistically impossible with all permutations of code to undertake a large project and not leave a hole for blackhats to exploit. If it hasn't been found yet, it doesn't mean it isn't there.

What do you think all the patches and upgrades are all about anyway?