{"id":6065,"date":"2025-05-18T14:15:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T06:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/rico-crypto-fraud-investigation-leads-to-twelve-more-arrests\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T06:15:29","slug":"rico-crypto-fraud-investigation-leads-to-twelve-more-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/rico-crypto-fraud-investigation-leads-to-twelve-more-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"RICO crypto fraud investigation leads to twelve more arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/y6zPwEotfPu3Mzhft3hCsH.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<hr\/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>12 have been charged with cryptocurrency theft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The group is reportedly responsible for over $263 million worth of theft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The organisation used social engineering tactics to steal the funds<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr\/>\n<p>The Department of Justice today has revealed that 12 people have been charged in a RICO case which involves the theft of over $263 million, as well as money laundering, home break-ins, and wire-fraud, the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/pr\/additional-12-defendants-charged-rico-conspiracy-over-263-million-cryptocurrency-thefts#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%93%20A%20four%2Dcount%20superseding,them%20more%20than%20%24263%20million.\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/pr\/additional-12-defendants-charged-rico-conspiracy-over-263-million-cryptocurrency-thefts#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20%E2%80%93%20A%20four%2Dcount%20superseding,them%20more%20than%20%24263%20million.\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\">US attorney\u2019s office has confirmed.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A mix of Americans and foreign nationals are accused of \u201cparticipating in a cyber-enabled racketeering conspiracy throughout the United States and abroad that netted them more than $263 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-base\"\/>\n<p>The group, who reportedly met on an online dating platform, had various roles in the organization, like database hackers, money launderers, and burglars who targeted hardware virtual currency wallets. The hackers would focus on websites and servers, obtaining cryptocurrency-related databases.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<span class=\"bg-secondary-500 text-white text-lg font-bold uppercase py-1 px-2 leading-[1.625rem] sm:leading-[6px] sm:text-sm\"><br \/>\nYou may like<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 id=\"social-engineering-attacks-3\">Social engineering attacks<\/h2>\n<p>From there, the organizers and target identifiers \u2018organized and collated information across the databases to determine the most valuable targets\u2019. The group would cold-call victims and use social engineering tactics to convince them that their accounts had fallen victim to cyberattacks, and that they needed to recover or secure their accounts &#8211; encouraging them to hand over credentials.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the indictment, members of the enterprise laundered stolen cryptocurrency proceeds by moving the funds through various mixers and exchanges using \u201cpeel chains,\u201d pass-through wallets, and virtual private networks to mask their true identities,\u201c the Department of Justice confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>In just<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/security\/over-usd1-5-billion-of-crypto-was-lost-to-scams-or-theft-this-year\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/security\/over-usd1-5-billion-of-crypto-was-lost-to-scams-or-theft-this-year\"> the first three months of 2025, over $1.5 billion of crypto was lost to theft or scams<\/a>, with an over 300% increase in money lost in Q1. The median loss per incident was $9,549,339, and just 0.4% of stolen funds were returned to victims, research from CertiK confirms.<\/p>\n<p>Much of this was thanks to one large incident, with<a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/security\/hackers-steal-over-usd1bn-in-one-of-the-biggest-crypto-thefts-ever\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/pro\/security\/hackers-steal-over-usd1bn-in-one-of-the-biggest-crypto-thefts-ever\"> hackers sealing over $1 billion in one of the biggest crypto thefts ever<\/a>, against cryptocurrency exchange platform Bybit &#8211; measuring up as the largest heist in crypto history.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-nfbGCZAoayQHdTgX5h4wDm\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-nfbGCZAoayQHdTgX5h4wDm slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"article-body__section\" id=\"section-you-might-also-like\"><span>You might also like<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12 have been charged with cryptocurrency theft The group is reportedly responsible for over $263 million worth of theft The organisation used social engineering tactics to steal the funds The Department of Justice today has revealed that 12 people have been charged in a RICO case which involves the theft of over $263 million, as [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cicserver.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}