Tag Archives: crypto scams

A resident of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, whose name was undisclosed, has reportedly parted with $9.2 million after falling prey in a typical cryptocurrency romance fraud.  The local police said it has never investigated a crypto-related scam where individuals have lost such a substantial sum. The Multi-Million Scheme As reported by Star Tribune, the man started chatting with a mysterious woman on LinkedIn who urged him to invest in a dubious cryptocurrency project called...

Blackberry has detected several malware families that are being used to run massive campaigns for stealing crypto from devices. In the August edition of ‘The BlackBerry Global Threat Intelligence Report,’ the former titan of the smartphone industry found that finance, healthcare, and government are the top three industries with the highest distribution of cyberattacks. Malware Everywhere From March 2023 to May 2023, BlackBerry’s cybersecurity solutions managed to stop over...

A phishing scammer recently nabbed $20 million in USDT from an unsuspecting victim using a zero transfer phishing attack, reported blockchain security firm PeckShield on Tuesday. The stolen funds were frozen in short order by Tether – the issuer behind USDT – raising questions about who the victim was given the speed of their response. The Zero Transfer Phishing Attack According to PeckShield, the victim address intended to send funds to one wallet, but was fooled into...

A Tennessee couple was charged for operating a $6 million digital assets commodity pool scheme by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) this week. The United States derivatives market regulator charged the owners of a Clarksville real estate company, Michael and Amanda Griffis, for allegedly defrauding more than 100 people across the country. The couple was also accused of failing to register with the CFTC in connection with a multi-million dollar commodity pool...

The Valley Stream, New York resident – Eddy Alexandre – received a nine-year prison sentence for engaging in commodities fraud. He was found guilty of swindling $248 million from over 25,000 investors through his cryptocurrency trading platform called EminiFX. The investigation determined that Alexandre used some of the funds to purchase luxurious items for himself, such as expensive cars. The ‘Brazen’ Fraud The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Alexandre’s punishment...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States plans to reinforce its team responsible for investigating cryptocurrency-related crimes with more prosecutors. The unit will also have a new leader, with Claudia Quiroz replacing Eun Young Choi at the helm. The team has played a major role in many of the DOJ’s crypto cases, such as bringing charges against Bitzlato and the investigation into Binance. Bringing NCET to ‘the Next Level’ The DOJ disclosed that it will more than...

Canadian law enforcement agents have reportedly arrested the 39-year-old Akil Heywood over allegations that he kidnapped, threatened, and beat Aiden Pleterski in December 2022. The latter supposedly orchestrated a crypto scam, draining over $40 million from investors. Records show that Heywood invested $740,000 with Pleterski, making him one of the countless victims. The alleged fraudster apologized in a recent video, vowing to “live on the bare minimum” to repay the conned...

Popular on-chain sleuth ZachXBT has unmasked another crypto scammer responsible for stealing millions of dollars in digital assets using sophisticated phishing attacks. The thief’s targets included the discord services for DeFi projects such as Orbiter Finance and Pika Protocol. Impersonation and Confiscation In a Twitter thread published on Monday, ZachXBT explained that the attacker, Soup (aka Dan) enacted his scam by impersonating Luke Hamlton – an employee for the crypto...

The American authorities have reportedly arrested Brandon Austin and his father, Eugene “Hugh” Austin, over accusations that they run a massive crypto fraud, embezzling over $10 million from investors. Brandon, who has already pleaded guilty, will hear his sentence on September 6. Conning Investors to Fund a Lavish Lifestyle According to recent coverage, federal agents detained the 27-year-old Brandon Austin in April and his dad on July 5. US Attorney Damian Williams said the...

Blockchain detective ZachXBT has implicated a YouTuber with over 120,000 subscribers in over $1.5 million worth of crypto scams over the past two years. Some of those scams are connected to the infamous Monkey Drainer, an anonymous and boastful phishing scammer known for stealing people’s NFTs. Linking “Blue” to Monkey Drainer Before entering the world of crypto scams in July 2021, the scammer – known as either “BlueXBT” or “JB Adventures” (Jack) – had grown his YouTube...