Crimes involving crypto have risen

[jonasBTC]

They are exaggerating to make the crypto industry the boogeyman, so the mass population will accept to be controlled easier via legislations, taxes, etc... It would have been interesting to give the figures for the fiats currencies.

I agree.  A large portion of this is just an estimate and with law enforcement, the rule is to always err (estimate) on the high end.

[1715179158]

1715179158

[1715179158]

1715179158

[1715179158]

1715179158

[abeecrypto]

Crime, generally, have risen. And the digital world is not left out. As far as digital world or the cryptocurrency  is concerned, the first step to curbing the criminal activities will be awareness. Most of those criminal activities are possible because users have allowed it unknowingly; From clicking of untrusted links (phishing) to giving out information which should be private. Public awareness of how to not to fall victim of the criminals is very important.
Regulation of exchanges will also help curb those criminal activities.

[kingpin4321]

...to giving out information which should be private...

Most times all in the name of KYC, most of this ICO projects make it mandatory for one to submit KYC before payment, most of the team behind all this projects are fraudulent, and they use those information for ill purposes.
The system is decentralized and it is anonymous, there is bound to be high rate of crime, what we can only do is to protect ourselves by "ourselves"

[BitHodler]

It depends on what side of crypto you are referring to. I'm quite sure that the criminal activities involving Bitcoin are trending down with how people start to understand that it doesn't offer them any anonymity at all.

With that said, Monero and other coins focusing on privacy have seen a major increase in criminal activity. Does this mean it will affect people's investments? Maybe. Exchanges could decide to delist them to please regulators.

IIRC, Japan has made a move to prohibit exchanges from listing these coins, and in case they are listed already, they will have to be delisted. This means less demand and less liquidity, so think it through before buying privacy coins.

[shield132]

Yeah, recently there are lot of crypto exchange hacks, money steal by using phishing and etc which in overall results in increased crypto crimes but also at the same time there are lot of crypto criminals punished. Some people were got in jail for money laundering, also lately bittrex or bitfinex (can't remember) refunded some stolen money which was found lately.
Seems it's not so hard to detect criminals despite the fact that cryptocurrencies offer better anonimity, so in overall it's good because such things negatively affect the image of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

[akuser]

Crime can be done anywhere and happens at any time. but it is unfair if this news is disseminated to drop the popularity of bitcoin or spread fud.

[btc_angela]

I won't deny that bitcoin or crypto in general has been taken advantage by the criminals. But we can't totally blame it on crypto though. And it's not that this market is the only ecosystem that criminals have used, even the banking system (money laundering, drugs, etc). So I don't understand why media is hyping crypto as tools for criminals.

[awik p]

this is because there is no regulation from the government that regulates it, so it becomes a potential land for fraudsters. this is certainly detrimental to the cryptocurrency market, because investors who have believed in crypto are traumatized, and lose their funds

[bryant.coleman]

The governments are responsible for most of this. Many of the nations refuse to legalize the trading and ownership of cryptocurrency, forcing the users to move underground. And the incidents of scamming increases by manifold once that happens, because the perpetrators know that the victims are unlikely to go to the cops.

And another thing is that KYC has been made mandatory by the authorities. So in case we want to register to a crypto-exchange or an online casino, we need to send the scanned copy of our IDs to the owners. And we don't know what sort of people we are dealing with. At least in some cases, the guys running these exchanges and casinos are not clean. It increases the chance of these documents getting misused for fraud. Also, the real life identity of the user is revealed, along with this net worth. This makes him vulnerable to extortion, theft, kidnapping and blackmail.

An example is here: https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/02/23/bitcoin-traders-beware-group-of-robbers-gruesomely-torture-netherlands-based-crypto-trader/

[crypmon259]

"Nearly 2.7 trillion won ($2.3 billion) have been lost to crimes involving cryptocurrency in the last two years, according to South Korean government data."

where do you see the improvements being made against crypto criminal activity. this can really hurt the price for traders/investors if conditions don't improve.

Governments are trying hard to discredit cryptos so that they will keep on controlling the masses with fiat. Fiat money is responsible for thrillions of bucks in crime around the world , but hey government does not want to ban that. They think they can control the crypto with over regulation , but again who gonna tell them that they cant even control those fiat even though they are the ones who prints them.

Crime will always be done by criminals , no matter if its involved with crypto or fiat.

[Paulinerims]

Even the number is as high as it is. I think its a safer way to have your money stored. They are acting like crypto is the only thing being stoled in this world. No data about other criminal activities and there is a reason behind that.

[jossiel]

Crypto crime involvement? this is the reality about media, they are making stereotypes about things that they don't understand. How about those crimes where no crypto involvement? they should also look into that point.

Money in the banks through frauds, skimming and other scams are even larger than that. It's bias to say that it's just all about crypto. Well what we can expect from the industry that's against crypto? they can pay articles to damage the rep of their competitor.

[mayureeana]

Just like the technology, crimes and the crooks are evolving too 

[samputin]

Bitcoin has been tied to all sorts of crime ever since its inception, and I highly doubt people are going to stop using it for illegal things anytime soon.  The thing is, bitcoin isn’t the criminal—the criminals themselves are, and bitcoin itself is not illegal.  

Despite that fact, most people still think that cryptocurrency is the one to blame for all the crypto scams arising when in reality, it's just being used as an instrument for such crimes.

We don't know where their judgement is coming but my wild guess  is that because they were somehow a victim or they know someone who's a victim. But how about not dwelling on ignorance? I mean, gaining the right knowledge won't do one harm, right? Knowing what to do, knowing where to invest and where not to can make a difference. In our country, we have a saying that "you won't be scammed if you won't allow it." Might as well, everyone out there should be bearing that in mind so no one will be a victim again. And to stop the nonsense blame on crypto.

We already know that those crooks are smart. But let's not let them outsmart us. They may be smart but let's show them that we're wise.

And this should be noted by everyone:

So crime tied to crypto can grow as fast as it can, but it’s never going to be bitcoin’s fault and its reputation ought not be sullied because of reports like this.

[Moshaid]

Crypto crimes is something that can't be totally rid off just like how our government are still fighting against crimes even though most of them still involves in it personally. One of the crimes I was a victim of was investing in a certain project which the whole team went off the grid after they have successfully hit their softcap and till now no news about them is found. I believe the regulatory bodies in the crypto world are working hard to reduce such crimes but still some are still evolving daily.

[bernardos]

IIRC, Japan has made a move to prohibit exchanges from listing these coins, and in case they are listed already, they will have to be delisted. This means less demand and less liquidity, so think it through before buying privacy coins.

Even privacy coins like Monero will in many instances be exchanged for fiat on exchanges. Exchanges who deal with fiat currencies require KYC so once they are exchanged their users are no longer anonymous. It is another question who is tracking the movement of these privacy coins and taking note of the users.  

[bitbunnny]

For me it was expected. As cryptocurrencies are being more accepted, so more in.use and more popular, so the crime connected to them is also on the rise. Different kind of scams, hackers attacks, thefts and similar.
Users need to learn to be more careful and how to protect themselves but that kind of awareness is still very low.

[microsurfer]

A lof of exchanges has been hacked. Thats all due to poor security or low intellect lvl

[el kaka22]

Crimes involving dollar stays still or goes down right? As long as there is a currency exchange the crime will continue. Criminals do not care if bitcoin exists or not, if it helps them sure they will use it but do you really think that many criminals are smart enough to use crypto to use to their advantage? Lets face it bitcoin was created around 2008-2009 times and before that crime was already a thing, not like money laundering or drug dealing started after bitcoin was created.

Hence, it means they will use crypto for crimes, they will use dollars, they will use euro, they will use whatever they can to do their crimes and we will fight against them. Crypto is not helpful to criminals, it is just another method for them to use while doing their crimes.

[cosmofly]

scam, hacked are the eternal problems in crypto market. We are known cryptocurrency is a decentralized market and they can wash money, fake ip, fake identify to cheat people.
This problem is not only in Korea, in Japan as well. many exchanges are now intentionally collapsing exchanges and taking all the investors' money, then they publish information and blame the hackers.