The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has seized bitcoin value thousands and thousands of {dollars} from abroad scammers concentrating on the aged. The scammers posed as members of U.S. regulation enforcement companies and tricked the victims into transferring cash to them for “safekeeping.”
FBI Says It Has Seized Bitcoin From Scammers Abroad
The U.S. Lawyer for the District of Connecticut and the Appearing Particular Agent in Cost of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) introduced Friday that bitcoin and different digital belongings have been seized in reference to a fraudulent scheme concentrating on the aged. They detailed:
An investigation of a fraud scheme concentrating on weak victims has resulted within the forfeiture of roughly 151 bitcoins, in addition to different digital belongings.
The case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service. On the time of writing, the worth of the allegedly seized bitcoin totaled roughly $3.5 million.
The fraud, which occurred in roughly October 2020, concerned abroad people pretending to be members of U.S. regulation enforcement companies. They focused “weak victims, together with first-generation U.S. residents and aged individuals,” the authorities stated. By way of telephone calls, they informed the victims that their id had been compromised. After gaining the victims’ belief, the scammers requested transfers of cash for “safekeeping” with the promise of returning the funds plus curiosity. The announcement particulars:
As soon as the abroad people had entry to the victims’ cash, they moved the cash by a number of financial institution accounts and transformed the cash to digital forex within the type of bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.
“Legislation enforcement investigators traced the victims’ cash by the varied accounts and recognized a digital pockets holding bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies that had been bought with the victims’ cash,” the announcement provides. The authorities famous that the abroad scammers stay at giant.
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace has been granted “a civil asset forfeiture seizure warrant for the digital pockets,” the announcement clarifies, elaborating:
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace used the civil asset forfeiture process as a result of the digital belongings constituted the proceeds of wire fraud.
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