Two teenagers, both aged seventeen and hailing from Hamilton, Canada, have been apprehended and accused of committing theft and possessing property that was obtained through illegal means.
According to reports, the pair is accused of swindling a U.S. citizen out of $4.2 million worth of itcoin">Bitcoin and Ethereum through a fraudulent scheme commonly referred to as a “spear phishing” attack.
Spear phishing, unlike regular phishing attacks that cast a wide net, is a more personalized form of cyberattack that focuses on specific individuals. In spear phishing, the attacker disguises themselves as a trusted entity and requests sensitive information from the victim, which can then be used to gain unauthorized access to their accounts.
In this particular instance, the two individuals posed as oinbase">Coinbase Support in order to unlawfully seize control of the victim’s cryptocurrency holdings.
As per the reports, a portion of the thieved funds was allegedly used by the teenagers to acquire the highly coveted Instagram handle “@Zombie,” which is a popular username choice among gamers. Additionally, the two individuals went by the aliases “Gaze” and “Felon.”
Based on a regional news report, the inquiry was initiated the previous month and was a collaborative effort between the FBI and the United States Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force.
At the time of their apprehension, the young boys were found to be in possession of cryptocurrency amounting to $13.4 million.
As instances of multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency thefts continue to be reported with frequency, it is evident that as the cryptocurrency market expands, so does the occurrence of crypto-related criminal activities.
As of late, a few notable initiatives promoting interagency cooperation have been established.
In February, the FBI established a Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit in collaboration with the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which was founded in 2021 to concentrate on investigating crimes related to cryptocurrency.
Since 2017, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Arizona, the Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Postal Inspection Service have informally collaborated in the state. Their combined efforts have successfully dismantled several prominent drug trafficking operations.
#Blockchain #Ethereum #oinbase">Coinbase
