Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Six Arrested in $27 Million Cryptocurrency Theft

European authorities this week announced the arrest of 6 individuals in connection with a €24 million ($27.2 million) cryptocurrency theft.

European authorities this week announced the arrest of 6 individuals in connection with a €24 million ($27.2 million) cryptocurrency theft.

Five men and one woman were arrested in simultaneous warrants at their homes in the UK (Charlcombe, Lower Weston and Staverton), and the Netherlands (Amsterdam and Rotterdam).

The authorities also seized a large number of electronic devices, equipment and valuable assets.

The arrested individuals are believed to have committed computer misuse act offences and to have engaged in money laundering activities. 

The arrests were made following a 14-month long joint investigation by the UK’s South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit (SW RCCU), the Dutch police (Politie), Europol, Eurojust, and the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). 

The investigation targeted the theft of crypto-currency from Bitcoin users. At least 4,000 victims in 12 countries are believed to have been impacted. 

The scheme involved the use of typosquatting, a method where cybercriminals spoof or create an imitation of a well-known online cryptocurrency exchange, in an attempt to trick users into providing their login credentials, to gain access to their Bitcoin wallets and steal funds.

The UK authorities identified possible suspects in the Netherlands in February 2018 and referred the case to the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), which provided support and coordination for the operation.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
Written By

Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

The changing nature of what we still generally call ransomware will continue through 2023, driven by three primary conditions.

Cybercrime

A recently disclosed vBulletin vulnerability, which had a zero-day status for roughly two days last week, was exploited in a hacker attack targeting the...

Cybercrime

As it evolves, web3 will contain and increase all the security issues of web2 – and perhaps add a few more.

Cybercrime

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group informed some customers last week that their online accounts had been breached by hackers.

Cybercrime

Zendesk is informing customers about a data breach that started with an SMS phishing campaign targeting the company’s employees.

Cybercrime

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft calls attention to a series of zero-day remote code execution attacks hitting its Office productivity suite.

Artificial Intelligence

The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 has demonstrated the potential of AI for both good and bad.

Cybercrime

Satellite TV giant Dish Network confirmed that a recent outage was the result of a cyberattack and admitted that data was stolen.