[2019-06-25]Europol Arrests Six People Allegedly Behind $27 Million Bitcoin Thef

[Vladdirescu87]

Europol Arrests Six People Allegedly Behind $27 Million Bitcoin Theft

Europol, in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit, the Dutch police, Eurojust, and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), has coordinated the arrests of six people suspected of stealing over $27 million in cryptocurrency, according to a press release on June 25.

The attackers reportedly were involved in typosquatting, a fraudulent means to steal credentials by setting up a scam website with a similar name to an established one—hence the “typo” in “typosquatting”—and then recording login data.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/europol-arrests-six-people-allegedly-behind-27-million-bitcoin-theft

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[Sithara007]

This method (typosquatting) was frequently used to steal coins and tokens from MEW wallets. First they set up a clone of the MEW website with very similar address (URL) and then they send phishing emails to the users with links to the cloned websites. A lot of users lost their precious tokens to these sort of attacks. Is there a chance that such users may now get back their coins? I am unsure about this, as the cops don't have data on the real identity of the victims with them.

[CryptoBry]

I was one of the multitude of victims with phishing scams and I am certainly elated to know that authorities are doing their job of going after and successfully apprehending these people who are using their given talent and skills to rob people of their assets digitally. Now, this should be the right kind of attitude that those in the government should display. Instead of being afraid with cryptocurrency and having misconception that this can promote money laundering and other illegal acts, we should instead focus on getting these people to face the consequences of what they did.  These are the people who are destroying the name and image of this blooming and burgeoning industry and we should support the government in the efforts to flush them out and have them stay behind bars.

[Kemarit]

Europol seems to be stepping up the game a bit in recent months. I applaud them for catching a thief, it's a good effort and coordinate attack to put down this syndicates. It might have been months for following the footprints of those hackers but it's worth a try. 4000 BTC is a huge amount, I wonder though if there is a chance that they can give it back to those victims, I'm sure it will be great to hear that as well.

[Sithara007]

Europol seems to be stepping up the game a bit in recent months. I applaud them for catching a thief, it's a good effort and coordinate attack to put down this syndicates. It might have been months for following the footprints of those hackers but it's worth a try. 4000 BTC is a huge amount, I wonder though if there is a chance that they can give it back to those victims, I'm sure it will be great to hear that as well.

The problem is that this amount was not stolen from any of the exchanges. They were stolen from individual cryptocurrency wallets, where the identity of the user is not known. Now I am not sure how the Interpol is going to contact the owners of these wallets, if they plan to refund the amount. They can send them a signed message requesting KYC documents.

[Slow death]

Europol reports that the hackers used this scheme to steal from at least 4,000 bitcoin (BTC) users in 12 different countries.
The six individuals were reportedly bas

4000 BTC = $51.346.200

currently and if we make exchange with value of 3 days before we will have:

4000 BTC = $39.346.200

were 4000 bitcoin stolen or 4000 users stolen?

[rodel caling]

The problem is that this amount was not stolen from any of the exchanges. They were stolen from individual cryptocurrency wallets, where the identity of the user is not known. Now I am not sure how the Interpol is going to contact the owners of these wallets, if they plan to refund the amount. They can send them a signed message requesting KYC documents.
[/quote]


It's possible the authorities use KYC to make sure he/she a legit owner of the funds, but I think it long time and need a lot of time to waste to investigate who is the real individual owner of the stolen funds.
For for those people out there have to plan stealing funds of other people this a warning possible to be convicted.

[Sithara007]

Europol reports that the hackers used this scheme to steal from at least 4,000 bitcoin (BTC) users in 12 different countries.
The six individuals were reportedly bas

4000 BTC = $51.346.200

currently and if we make exchange with value of 3 days before we will have:

4000 BTC = $39.346.200

were 4000 bitcoin stolen or 4000 users stolen?

The article is very clear and it mentions that coins from 4,000 users were stolen. Nowhere it is mentioned that the stolen amount was BTC4,000. If you are still confused, then you can refer the Coindesk article about the same incident: https://www.coindesk.com/six-arrested-over-cloned-crypto-exchange-that-stole-e24-million

BTW, I am not a big fan of the Coin Telegraph. They have a habit of printing fake news regularly. You can find the original statement form the Europol Agency here:

https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/6-arrested-in-uk-and-netherlands-in-%E2%82%AC24-million-cryptocurrency-theft

The robbery was committed during 2017-18, and so I suspect that the amount of coins may be higher (since the exchange rate was lower during that time).

[elda34b]

They'll probably release a statement and provide the website or url or smart contract that was used/related to this incident, and then allow anyone who feels that their funds were stolen by that website/contract/url to contact them and then they'll require signed message or something similar.

It's possible the authorities use KYC to make sure he/she a legit owner of the funds, but I think it long time and need a lot of time to waste to investigate who is the real individual owner of the stolen funds.
For for those people out there have to plan stealing funds of other people this a warning possible to be convicted.

KYC won't prove that they're the owner of the stolen coins. Signed message is probably a better choice.