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- A police department in the United Kingdom is attempting to recover £16 million ($22 million) in stolen cryptocurrencies, including £6.85 million ($9.4 million) in Ethereum found on a single encrypted USB drive
- A 23-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were detained on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, according to police. Both have now been freed pending the outcome of the inquiry
- In a statement, Detective Chief Inspector Joe Harrop of Greater Manchester Police’s Economic Crime Unit said, their lives are increasingly shifting online or onto their phones, and currencies like bitcoin and ethereum are frequently regarded as the future when it comes to money and commerce
A police department in the United Kingdom is attempting to recover £16 million ($22 million) in stolen cryptocurrencies, including £6.85 million ($9.4 million) in Ethereum found on a single encrypted USB drive. After thwarting an internet fraud, the Economic Crime Unit of Greater Manchester Police was able to recover the bitcoin. Victims from the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, China, Australia, and Hong Kong were tricked into putting money into online savings and trading services that claimed to be built on Binance Smart Chain, according to a news statement from the police.
After specialized officers learned of a plan in Greater Manchester that resulted in the discovery of USB sticks carrying substantial quantities of ethereum, they confiscated $22.2 million in cryptocurrencies and arrested two people. According to the authorities, victims were duped into putting their funds into Binance Smart Chain, which they mistook for online savings and trading services.
A 23-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were detained on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, according to police. Both have now been freed pending the outcome of the inquiry. The Economic Crime Unit of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) revealed that a total of $9.5 million in stolen ethereum was recovered in USB sticks seized from victims in Australia, China, Europe, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A few days later, investigators uncovered an extra $12.7 million after discovering a cryptograph safety deposit box, which is a sort of online safe, along with its access code.
In a statement, Detective Chief Inspector Joe Harrop of Greater Manchester Police’s Economic Crime Unit said, their lives are increasingly shifting online or onto their phones, and currencies like bitcoin and ethereum are frequently regarded as the future when it comes to money and commerce. With that comes a new kind of crime, and they are seeing an increase in opportunist criminals seeking to take advantage of these trends. According to police, they have begun returning stolen property to its rightful owners, some of whom are still unknown.
Cryptocurrency scams have grown in popularity in recent months, with the US Federal Trade Commission stating that between October 2020 and March 2021, customers lost $82 million to crypto frauds, 10 times the amount recorded a year before. The FTC stated at the time that as cryptocurrency values grow, so do crypto frauds.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
