Europol broke down a major crypto phishing ring responsible for at least $5.7 million in thefts. Criminals based out of Latvia operated millions of fake accounts to scam users across Europe.
Police seized $330,000 in crypto from the criminals, but more money may be unaccounted for. Crypto crimefighters worldwide are trying to crack down on phishing scams, but it’ll be a long battle.
Europol Fights Crypto Phishing
All varieties of crypto crime are skyrocketing right now, but phishing scams are especially prevalent. These crimes stole $12 million in August after only $5 million in April, and the number keeps rising.
However, Europol just broke down a crypto phishing scam ring, potentially easing the burden:
According to Europol’s press release, this SIM “farm-for-hire” operated 49 million fake accounts to do phishing attacks worldwide. It was linked to at least 1700 digital fraud cases, and stole at least $5.7 million from victims in Latvia and Austria alone.
Most of its victims, however, were Russian speakers, and Russia is not a member of Europol. In other words, the group may have stolen a much larger amount.
Police seized less than $1 million in hard assets, not including a few luxury cars and hardware that facilitated the crimes.
These hackers used a variety of tactics from impersonating loved ones or law enforcement, fraudulent business deals, and even heinous methods like distributing child sexual abuse material for blackmail purposes.
Will This Reduce Crypto Scam Calls?
The group was based in Latvia, and it had clear familiarity with the crypto industry; police seized around $330,000 in various tokens. Europol’s statement does not seem particularly interested in separating crypto phishing incidents from non-Web3 crimes, but it’s highly likely.
Hopefully, more details will surface in the future. These criminals may have only been using crypto for money laundering, or they may have created Web3-native attacks.
Either way, Europol has been making real progress in fighting crypto crime lately, and this phishing ring seems like part of it. Lately, digital crimefighters have been proactive in taking down these scams, which have become particularly pernicious.
For example, AI-generated audio has enabled bolder impersonation phishing scams, and at least one crypto enthusiast hopes that Europol will cut down on them. Still, this fight will be long and difficult.
