Four Vietnamese nationals were charged in a U.S. court for a series of cyber intrusions causing over million in losses. The defendants, part of the cybercrime group “FIN9,” allegedly hacked U.S. companies from May 2018 to October 2021, stealing non-public information, employee benefits, and funds. They used stolen personal and credit card information to […]
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Okx Acknowledges Security Incident Involving Judicial Documents Forgery
Okx, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange, clarified the information regarding a recent security incident that allowed unidentified criminals to take control of the accounts of a few customers, draining these. In a statement, Okx stressed that a third party had forged judicial documents and obtained user data, but that the users involved in this incident had […]
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Dapper Labs Secures Favorable Settlement in Class Action Lawsuit Involving NBA Top Shot NFTs
Dapper Labs, a blockchain technology and digital collectibles company, has reached a favorable settlement in the legal case Friel vs. Dapper Labs, establishing that NBA Top Shot Moments are not securities. The company emphasizes that this significant ruling clarifies the legal status of digital collectibles and ensures the continued decentralization of the Flow blockchain. Dapper […]
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Indian National Pleads Guilty in Case Involving ‘Largest Single Cryptocurrency and Cash Seizure in DEA History’
An Indian national has pleaded guilty in a case involving “the largest single cryptocurrency and cash seizure” in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) history. The defendant “is designated as a Consolidated Priority Target, which makes him one of the most significant drug trafficking threats in the world,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) described.
This Case Involves Largest Single Cryptocurrency and Cash Seizure in DEA History, Says DOJ
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that a 40-year-old Indian national, Banmeet Singh, has pleaded guilty to “running a dark web narcotics conspiracy.” Specifically, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The announcement details:
According to the DEA, this case involves the largest single cryptocurrency and cash seizure in DEA history; the defendant has forfeited cryptocurrency accounts that ultimately became worth 0 million.
According to court documents, Singh created vendor marketing sites on dark web marketplaces to sell controlled substances. Customers paid with cryptocurrency, and Singh personally shipped or arranged the shipment of controlled substances from Europe to the United States through U.S. mail or other shipping services.
The DOJ explained that from at least mid-2012 through July 2017, Singh controlled at least eight distribution cells in various U.S. states. “Individuals in those distribution cells received drug shipments from overseas and then re-packaged and re-shipped the drugs to locations in all 50 states, Canada, England, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” the Justice Department noted.
Singh was arrested in London in April 2019 and the government secured his extradition to the U.S. last year. DEA Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene commented:
Banmeet Singh is designated as a Consolidated Priority Target, which makes him one of the most significant drug trafficking threats in the world.
What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments section below.
US Lawmakers Launch Bill to Counter Terrorism and Threats Involving Digital Assets
Several U.S. lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to crack down on terrorist organizations by applying sanctions to foreign entities, including crypto platforms, that facilitate financial transactions for terrorists. The legislation would also “equip the Treasury Department with additional resources to counter terrorism and address emerging threats involving digital assets,” said one of the lawmakers who introduced the bill.
Terrorism Financing Prevention Act
U.S. Senators Mark Warner (D-VA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Mitt Romney (R-UT) announced Thursday that they have introduced bipartisan legislation titled Terrorist Financing Prevention Act of 2023 to “crack down on terrorist organizations like Hamas by applying sanctions to foreign parties that facilitate financial transactions with terrorists.”
The announcement explains: “Currently, these sanctions are imposed only in limited circumstances, primarily on the terrorist group Hezbollah following passage of the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act in 2015. The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act introduced today will expand this type of sanctions to cover all U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including Hamas, and other foreign parties that are controlled by or act on behalf of those FTOs.”
Senator Rounds commented:
The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act takes commonsense steps toward rooting out terrorism by sanctioning foreign financial institutions and foreign digital asset companies that assist them in committing these heinous acts. Cutting off funding for terrorist organizations at the source will save lives.
“It is critical to bolster the Treasury Department’s tools to protect our national and economic security. With this bill, we are forcing foreign financial institutions and foreign crypto firms to choose between doing business with terrorist organizations or maintaining access to the U.S. financial system,” Senator Reed opined.
Specifically, the bill requires the U.S. Department of the Treasury to “identify any foreign bank or foreign digital asset transaction facilitator that knowingly facilitates transactions with an FTO or related party,” the announcement notes. “Once these actors are identified, the bill requires imposition of sanctions on them, restricting either their use of U.S. correspondent bank accounts (in the case of a bank), or barring their digital asset or other transactions with U.S. persons (in the case of a digital asset transaction facilitator).”
The bill also contains a key provision from the Crypto-Asset National Security Enhancement and Enforcement (CANSEE) Act the senators previously introduced. This provision will provide the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) “with appropriate tools to address threats involving digital assets and non-traditional finance networks,” the senators explained.
Noting that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel perpetrated by Hamas “have made it more urgent and necessary for the U.S. to counter the role that cryptocurrency plays in the financing of terrorism,” Senator Romney described:
Our legislation would expand financial sanctions to cover all terrorist organizations — including Hamas — and it would equip the Treasury Department with additional resources to counter terrorism and address emerging threats involving digital assets.
What do you think about this bill? Let us know in the comments section below.
Decentralized Exchange Mixin Kernel Confirms Hack on Its Platform Involving Approximately $200M
Mixin Kernel confirmed on Sept. 25 that it was the victim of a hacking attack which had resulted in the loss of assets on the mainnet. The decentralized exchange said it has since suspended deposit and withdrawal services and only expects to restore normal services once a probe into the incident is completed.
Funds Worth Approximately 0 Million Involved
The decentralized exchange Mixin Kernel announced on Sept. 25 that its platform was a victim of a hacking attack which resulted “in the loss of assets on the mainnet.” The attack, which occurred two days earlier, involved funds worth approximately 0 million, the exchange said in a statement issued via X (formerly Twitter).
Mixin Kernel said it has not only suspended deposit and withdrawal services on the Mixin network but sought assistance from Google and the blockchain security firm Slowmist. According to the statement, suspended services will only be restored “once the vulnerabilities are confirmed and fixed.”
SlowMist Security Alert
On September 23, the Mixin Network cloud service provider database was attacked, the amount of funds involved was ~ 0M.
SlowMist is assisting in the investigation. Please wait for @MixinKernel updates for more information.
— SlowMist (@SlowMist_Team) September 25, 2023
The decentralized exchange’s confirmation of the hack came just minutes after the Slowmist team issued a security alert about the attack.
Meanwhile, the Mixin Kernel team said its founder Feng Xiaodong would provide an update on Sept. 25 (1:00 a.m. EST) about steps being taken to recover the lost funds via a livestream. The team added:
Please help spread the word. We will summarize the content in English afterward[s] for easy reference. We will try our best to minimize the losses and deeply apologize for this. Thank you, everyone, for your continuous support.
On social media, some users have questioned why platforms claiming to be decentralized are using services provided by centralized cloud service providers. However, one user characterized the hacking attack as a rug-pull incident initiated by CEO Cedric Fung.
What are your thoughts about this hacking incident? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
FBI Issues Warning on Scam Involving Criminals Impersonating NFT Developers
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a Public Service Announcement (PSA) warning about criminals impersonating non-fungible token (NFT) developers in social media. According to the PSA, criminals can impersonate these developers on social media by hijacking accounts or using similar account names and directing interested users to fake NFT sales pages to drain their wallets.
FBI Warns Users About NFT Scams
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a Public Service Announcement (PSA) warning users about non-fungible token (NFT) scams involving criminals impersonating developers of renowned projects. To target NFT-interested users, the criminals might take different routes, hijacking the accounts of these significant NFT projects or using almost identical account names in social media.
Using these tools, these criminals offer new or previously not announced collections of NFTs on social media, posting links to the pages where these fake offers are supposedly being held. According to the FBI, urgency is significant for these scams, as the PSA states that these operations often use “phrases like ‘limited supply,’ and refer to the promotion as a ‘surprise’ or previously unannounced mint.”
After getting the attention of interested users who believe they are taking advantage of an offer linked to a big NFT project, the fake pages linked include smart contracts that deprive users of the funds and NFTs saved in their wallets. The contents of these wallets are then mixed through a series of operations to obfuscate their final destiny.
Recommendations to Avoid Being Scammed
In the PSA, the FBI makes a series of recommendations for users to avoid being victims of these scam schemes. First, the bureau advises interested users to verify if the specific NFT project making these surprise offers has presented this kind of opportunity in the past or if it has declared that there will never be this kind of mint.
Also, when facing this kind of opportunity, users should review the name of the social media accounts promoting it and make sure that these are official and not just similar or newly created accounts used just for this purpose. “Any discrepancies in spelling, account history, screen name, followers, or creation date indicate the account proclaiming the opportunity is fake,” per the bureau’s statements.
And finally, when accessing the linked websites, users should also review that the domains involved correspond to the project making the offer without spelling issues or other discrepancies.
Cryptocurrency-linked investment fraud rose by 183% in 2022, with the FBI stating these operations “saw unprecedented increases in the number of victims and the dollar losses to these investors” in March.
What do you think about the latest FBI NFT-linked PSA? Tell us in the comments section below.
Court Orders $4M in Penalties for Investment Fraud Involving ATM Coin
n A New York court has entered an order forcing defendants to pay .25 million in penalties for investment fraud involving the worthless cryptocurrency ATM Coinn
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Panera Bread, Porn, & Bitcoin At Center of Alleged Scandal Involving 86-Year-Old Woman
Let’s face it, there aren’t many instances where you can imagine a story entailing Bitcoin, porn, and Panera Bread, but that’s exactly the case with an 86-year-old Chicago woman.
The tech-savvy elderly woman was able to connect the dots as to how a Bitcoin extortionist was able to find her through a data leak stemming from a Panera Bread rewards account she signed up for to receive a free bagel on her birthday.
Birthday Bagel Turns into Bitcoin Extortion Scam and Porn-Related Threats
While its certainly a stereotype and outliers exist – just like the 86-year-old woman at the center of this story – most elderly aren’t exactly the most tech-savvy of internet users. There are communities dedicated to this common stereotype such as “Old People Facebook” on Reddit.
However, Arlene Kaganove from Chicago doesn’t fall victim to such stereotypes and because of it, she also didn’t fall victim to a Bitcoin extortion scandal.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Extortionists Turn From Blackmail to Bomb Threats
The 86-year-old woman was shocked to find threatening emails sent to her accusing her of watching porn, which she says is “hilarious.” “They told me I have very good taste in porn so I thought that was nice,” Kaganove said, showing how lighthearted she looked at what could otherwise have been a scary situation.
The extortionists were demanding ,400 in Bitcoin, but the woman has two masters degrees in chemistry and law, and despite saying the hackers would only see “a little old lady cursing at the computer,” she is far savvier than the cybercriminals took her for.
Kaganove kept detailed notes about what password she used to sign up for what. She claims to sign up for many free programs, including one from Panera Bread to receive birthday rewards. But because she did keep notes, she realized that the crypto-seeking criminals were allegedly related to Panera Bread, which suffered a massive data breach back in April 2018 that saw millions of customer’s data leaked.
Panera denies the allegations in a statement, saying that no “MyPanera Rewards account passwords were exposed during the April 2018 incident,” and that “Arlene’s account was not accessed improperly.”
Related Reading | Crypto and Bitcoin Ransom: A Rapidly Growing Trend
Whatever transpired, Arlene was able to realize the threat was nothing more than a scam and called the police. She doesn’t want others to fall victim to the scam.
“If they are sending six [letters] to me, they are sending a lot more to people,” she said. “I am sure someone is sending them money.”
Six months ago, this NewsBTC journalist also received a similar threat, with similar claims as the one Arlene received. The scam is widespread and is reaching everyone from tech-savvy crypto journalists to innocent old ladies seeking a free bagel. The one common thread amongst these is that the scammers have zero proof of the threats they are making, and hoping to scare people into sending funds.
If this happens to you, contact your local authorities.
The post Panera Bread, Porn, & Bitcoin At Center of Alleged Scandal Involving 86-Year-Old Woman appeared first on NewsBTC.
New York Makes First Money Laundering Conviction Involving Cryptocurrency
n nn nn In what the Manhattan District Attorney calls the first crypto money laundering conviction in New York, two defendants have pleaded guilty to running a drug trafficking business that laundered millions of dollars in Western Union and crypto payments.According to an official announcement shared by the District Attorneys office on April 24, 2019, Mark Sanchez and Callaway Crain have pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering through the sale of controlled
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