Leading crypto asset exchange platform Binance has provided information to the UK police force to help bring a fraudster to justice. The unnamed Bulgarian individual pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and received a custodial sentence for his role in numerous phishing scams.
The convicted fraudster had created phishing scripts that he sold via the dark web. This enabled other criminals to rack up a total of more than $50 million.
Binance Helping to Fight Crypto Crime
According to a post to Binance’s blog, the popular crypto asset exchange has been working closely with the UK’s Cyber Crime Unit. The department is a division of the Metropolitan Police Service.
How #Binance Helped UK Authorities Fight Cybercrime and Keep Customers ‘ #SAFU’
The operation affected roughly half a million victims, with most being targeted via e-mail, and resulted in fraud totalling about £41.6 million British Pounds. https://t.co/h8K4B0ad4B
— Binance (@binance) September 26, 2019
The exchange has provided information that helped with the conviction of a Bulgarian fraudster who created and sold phishing scripts. The scripts were designed to imitate correspondence from 53 different companies.
Sold via the dark web, the scripts were used by other criminals to defraud victims out of a total of £41.6 million, or more than $50 million. They were reportedly circulated mostly via emails.
The crypto exchange blog post reads:
“We also recognize that cooperation with law enforcement entities around the world plays a large part in fostering a safe environment in this space. We are thankful for the UK Metropolitan Police Service, as well as the many other agencies actively working with us, and other industry players, to continue our fight against cybercrime and sustain a healthy, legitimate market.”
The phishing scammer was recently extradited from his native Bulgaria to stand trial in London, England. During the court case, heard last week at the Southwark Crown Court, the individual pleaded guilty guilty to five counts of fraud. The criminal was sentenced to nine years in prison for his deeds.
Cryptocurrency Still a Poor Payment Method for Crime!
Contrary to the beliefs of many lawmakers around the world, cases like this one serve to highlight just how poor digital currency is for committing illegal acts. With most digital assets, all transaction data is stored on a publicly accessible immutable record – the blockchain. With a little digging around and crucial data provided by Binance, or blockchain forensics firms, such as Chainalysis, criminals are frequently discovering that non-privacy-focused crypto assets are not as anonymous as Bitcoin was often touted to be in its early days.
There have been numerous examples of criminals being brought to justice thanks to the paper trail they leave behind when using non-private crypto assets. As the efforts of law enforcement improve with greater experience, it seems likely that this trend will continue.
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