Scam's involving crypto currency have been a continuous occurrence since the launch of Crypto Currency with many senators over the years conceded that crypto fraud is a major problem. So much so that earl inceptions of Crypto Currency was fought off and allegations of digital currencies were being used to fund terrorism and other illegal activity.
The Crypto community fought back with some good rebuttals including the fact that cash is also used to fund all those things and now work is being done to make crypto currency safer for consumers.
No doubt these decisions came on the back of one of the worst years recorded for Crypto Scams with 2021 seeing Crypto scams skyrocket causing billions to be lost to thefts.
Not to mention the rising scams from North Korea which is allegedly seeing the tiny nation utilise the funds raised from stolen crypto currency to fund it's intercontinental ballistic missile project which is growing the capacity to launch nukes across boarders.
It now looks like super powers around the world have given up the fight in combating crypto currency and conceded that the technology is here to stay and are focusing efforts on tracking down and shutting down crypto scammers and with great success.
Uncle Sam has arrived to once again save the day this time providing resources to develop a specialised team to track down and shut down crypto scams and with good reason.
In 2022 the FBI received complaints totaling USD3.3Billion in stolen funds which predominantly occurred by people developing relationships with strangers and then convincing them to trade crypto currency and stealing their money.
Crypto Scams grew by 183% and most scams were coming from China under a code name "Sha Zhu Pan" Which translates to Pig Butcher. The largest Crypto Currency committed was with Bitcoin on the Ronin Network Hack which saw USD620 Million fleeced from investors and more commonly committed crimes were pump and dumps which were primarily being committed by well known influencers many of whom have been charged.
One of the largest Crypto Scam take downs happened recently when the US joined forces with Germany and Europol to locate and take down a long running scam ring ChipMixer.
ChipMixer commenced in Mid 2017 and was known to accept payments from Crypto Scammers and would scramble their wallets making their movements untraceable. Causing further issues to people who had been scammed.
ChipMixer is alleged to have handled 152,000 Bitcoins since it's operation with the majority of funds handled being accrued through ransomware attack groups and crypto scammers.
The joint taskforce managed to take down four ChipMixer servers and reclaim 1909.4 Bitcoins worth a whopping US57 Million at todays prices. As for the tokens, no doubt Dept of Justice will auction them off or sell them to recoup funds and continue growing it's joint forces.
So it appears Uncle Sam has come to save the day once again while we are all sleeping and while we give Uncle Sam a bit o shit from time to time you have to admit this last ditch efforts is well worth it.
Crypto currency scams have reduced by a whopping 40% although contested as data indicates ransomware individuals are just refusing to pay up leaving scammers high and dry and unpaid for their efforts.
Although attacks continue to be growing just being less successful and many shut down with data indicating 10,000 scams a month and we can see why the US is targeting Centralised Crypto Exchanges with most money scammed heading straight to centralised exchanges to be sold for profit and swapped into other tokens or in some causes straight for cash and withdrawn to bank accounts.
But it isn't all doom and gloom and the US believes it has managed to track down the operators stating that the current model is an "affiliate" type where a developer creates the ransomware and allows others to use it for a cut of the stolen wealth.
While there appears to be a lot of ransomware attacks the US also believes it is just the same players using different ransomware and running constant attacks and scams so their efforts to focus these groups won't be wasted.
Although there is no deadline on when they will be all shut down there is rising confidence that the market is getting a little safer with increased vigilance from US Department of Justice.
America, FUCK YEAH!
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