Category: Crypto Scandal

Crypto scandals refer to events involving fraud, mismanagement, or unethical behavior within the cryptocurrency industry. These incidents often lead to significant financial losses, loss of trust, and negative public perception of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

South Korea Busts $230M Crypto Scam: 215 Arrested, 15,000 Victims

South Korea busted a huge $230M crypto scam, with over 15,000 victims suffered by their scam, most of the them were old people. This scheme was apparently run by a Youtuber with over 620K subs. Cops arrested him including 215 helpers, and tracked over 1400 accounts and seized $1.9M in Bitcoin. The mastermind for this was caught in Australia and the hunt for fund is still on.

South Koreans have just cracked down a massive organization that had managed to defraud over 15K investors including vulnerable older citizens , out of 325 billion won. According to a report by Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit, they have arrested 215 people associated with the scam. Among them 12 were considered higher level organizers of the plan. Every one of the suspects now face charges under South Korea’s Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Economic Crimes.

The scam was mostly successful because of the influence of a youtuber who goes by the name “Mr. A”, he is the alleged ring-leader of this scam. He used his influence to lure in  investors with claims of quick riches, encouraging some to even sell their homes and take out loans to buy crypto assets that would supposedly yield “20 times the principal.” 

The scam was active from December 2021 to March 2023, and offered 28 different types of cryptocurrency tokens, six of which were self-created and listed on overseas exchanges to attract buyers. The scam was cruel on so many levels, victim’s personal info were also misused, many of them lost their life’s savings in this scheme. The alleged leader Mr.A ran away from South Korea and was eventually arrested in Australia.

Police reported that they found across 1444 bank accounts and seized 22 bitcoins which is worth $1.9 million, and requested court approval to confiscate approximately $34 million linked to the scam. They are now working on to get victims money returned to them and prevent further financial crimes.

Thailand Busts Illegal Bitcoin Mining Rigs; Charges Two for $280k Electricity Theft

Briefly, Two suspects were arrested by Thai authorities for allegedly stealing over $280,000 in electricity for unauthorized Bitcoin Mining. This arrest mission led to the discovery of nine illegal and unauthorized mining sites in Surat Thani province. This issue showcases a growing problem of unlicensed crypto mining in Thailand.

Details of the Crackdown

The central Investigation Bureau and the Provincial Electricity Authority on Thailand raided nine illegal, unauthorized and unlicensed mining sites after a tip from a local resident about suspicious CCTV cameras. During investigation authorities stumbled upon modified electricity meters used to bypass legal power consumption, saving operators hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Thailand’s Stance on Crypto Mining

Bitcoin miners are considered manufacturers in Thailand and need to pay tax. However, illegal mining operations have significantly increased, with several busts in 2024 alone. Having said so, Thailand remains to attract crypto business due to its progressive approach to digital assets.

Thailand’s Growing Crypto Appeal

Thailand is globally considered as a top market by Binance, with a mind blowing 12% local crypto penetration rate. Authorities recently launched a Digital Asset Regulatory Sandox to help improve innovation in crypto service, allowing companies to operate under flexible and feasible guidelines aimed at making the country’s digital asset sector strong.

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DeltaPrime Suffers Second $4.7 Million Hack Attack

In brief, DeltaPrime which is a Crypto Broker has again suffered from a heartbreaking hack, with about $4.7 million stolen from its funds. This is second attack on the platform since September, which raises a serious question about the company’s security and operations.

DeltaPrime Targeted Again

DeltaPrime, which is a reputed decentralized protocol is backed by notable investors like Avalanche and GSR Market has faced another major security breach on Nov, 11. This security breach cause the company a devastating loss of approximately $4.7 Million. This breach included an attack on several liquidity pools on Arbitrum, with funds reportedly siphoned via a weak link in the protocol’s periphery adaptor contract.

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Analysts Confirm Break and Track Stolen Funds

Blockchain analysis at Certik confirmed the attack and found out that the amount stolen were held at a particular wallet address. After the security breach, Deltaprime accepted that both of it’s Avalanche and Arbitrum fund pool were affected, bringing total loss to $4.7 million.

Previous Incident in September

This incident isn’t the first time Deltaprime has suffered a security breach but just few months ago in September, hackers managed to get inside the network through a weak private key security which resulted in a $6 million loss. The platform is also connected to North korea’s IT personnel, which has raised a lot of questions regarding security vulnerabilities, though the flagged personnel were removed earlier this year.

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Background and Funding

Launched in January 2023. Deltaprime quickly managed to get good response from as it had managed to garner over $63 million in total value locked. The platform was supported by reputed investors like Avalanche, GSR Capital and Moonhill Capital, the protocal at first promised to provide robust security and light like efficiency. Yet, the repeated breach and repeated money stolen raise significant concerns about it’s promises.

Conclusion

With two major breached within just few months, Deltaprime is sure to face a lot of backlash on it’s security policy. Users and investors alike await the company’s response and any concrete steps to prevent future incidents.

Wiz Khalifa’s Socials Hacked in New Scam Promoting Phony WIZ Meme Coin

Summary

Famous rapper Wiz Khalifa’s socials got jacked by scammers and hyped up some crazy meme coin called WIZ on pump.fun. Crypto sleuth ZachXBT suspects this hacker might be same hacker that snatched Truth Terminal founder’s account too.

On November 4, blockchain detective ZachXBT dropped a screenshot in his Telegram channel, showing a deleted sketchy post from Wiz Khalifa’s X account which was hacked during that time. Wiz Khalifa has about 35.7 million followers, so that scam post got massive reach in a very short time resulting in some people losing money to it. ZachXBT warned followers to not blindly follow such posts quickly as there is high chance of big profiles getting hacked.

The hacker on a now deleted X post, promoted a token called $WIZ which was a pump.fun meme coin and assured users it was safe to buy by saying it was based on Solana. ZachXBT told in his group members to not buy Wiz Khalifa token on pump fun and further claimed this might be the same hacker that hacked Andy Ayrey the other day.

As reported by DEX Screener, the WIZ meme coin boomed by almost 2000%. This led it to hit over $2.5 million in market cap within just 15 minutes after launch. But things didn’t remain this bright for long as early holders quickly dumped loads of the token and the market cap crashed below $28,000 within an hour. This is always what usually happens in such sketchy tokens. As the time of writing, WIZ went down by 90% in the last 24 hour and its market cap is sitting at a tiny $7,900.

Since the meme coin posts got wiped away, Wiz’s account has gone silent. There are no updates on whether his account even got recovered or not. While the hacker’s ID is still missing ZachXBT seems very convinced that its same person that hacked Truth Terminal developer Andy Ayrey’s account recently.

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AI-Powered Phishing Scams Take Aim at Crypto Users

Summary

Kaspersky’s AI Research Center says that cybercriminals are using Large Language Models (LLMs) to pump out tons of phishing and scam content. Their goal is simply to produce fake websites, especially to steal from crypto investors and wallet users. But there’s a trick that helps us differ these sites from actual legit ones.

Experts from Kaspersky’s AI Research Center claims to have discovered an increase in the use of Large Language Models used by cybercriminals, in order to scam people using large-scale scam and phishing attacks. They say these websites are created in bulks and every single one of them is specifically designed to lure the investors into their scam. But there’s a kick: every such website contains a distinguishable artifacts such as AI-specific phrases which makes them a bit easier to avoid. Reportedly, most of these phishing websites target users of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.

A big giveaway of such AI created sites is using phrases such as “As an AI language model…” and refusal to do certain tasks like, acting like a search engine or logging into sites, which are showing up on fake crypto sites targeting KuCoin, Gemini, and Exodus users. Another major giveaway is using phrases like “While I can’t do exactly what you want, I can try something similar,” this feels really obvious machine-made style of talk. According to Vladislav Tushkanov, threat actors can now pump out lots of these scam pages quickly with AI, filling entire sites, text, and even hidden tags with these tells.

But lately, cybercriminals have started to throw in non-standard symbols to dodge detection. Tushkanov further said that these AI powered scams are evolving rapidly, there are even records of AI writing malware scripts on their own, one way to defend is to catch AI made mistakes but even so, advanced security tools are must use. To stay safe, always double check links, type site addresses manually and only use modern security software.

Austria Sentences Five in Landmark $21.6M Crypto Scam Trial

Summary

Five individuals were sentenced to prison for their roles in a Ponzi-like scheme. This incident occured in Austria, where the sentenced individuals involved themselves in the EXW-Token scam that defrauded over 40,000 investors out of €20 million ($21.6 million).

Landmark Crypto Fraud Trial Ends in Sentencing

Austria’s largest crypto fraud case to date, took a year-long trial and 60 days of hearings. The Klagenfurt Regional Court sentenced five individuals involved in the EXW-token scam. The individuals were found guilty of running a Ponzi-like scheme, persuading investors with promises of daily returns through fraudulent ventures,including the EXW Wallet and fictitious investments in real estate and rental cars.This fraudulent scheme had already collapsed in 2020 but briefly managed to resurface under the name Exchange World.

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Lavish Spending Funded by Fraud

Court recordings reveal that the defendants were using the stolen funds to facilitate their lavish lifestyles; luxury cars, private jets and mansions. Out of all the stolen goods some of the stolen goods was allegedly transfered from Dubai to Austria.Two of the defendants received five-year sentences, with others handed 30-month and 18-month suspended sentences. EXW Wallet co-founders Benjamin Herzog and Pirmin Troger had already pleaded guilty and received five-year sentences.

A Rising Global Threat

The EXW-Token case highlights a troubling increase in crypto scams globally. France recently began its own $30 million crypto fraud trial, while the U.S. sentenced a Ponzi promoter to prison. With crypto-related frauds surging, authorities worldwide are cracking down to protect investors and maintain trust in the cryptocurrency market.

Chinese Woman Pleads Not Guilty to Bitcoin Laundering Charges in the UK

Summary

Zhimin Qian, a Chinese national, has pleaded not guilty to charges of Bitcoin laundering in UK court. She was accused of handling illegal cryptocurrency in connection with a large money laundering operations.

X (formerly Twitter) post by Crypto News (CoinGape)

Qian Faces Money Laundering Charges

Zhimin Qian, popularly known as Yadi Zhang, stood in front of UK court and pleaded not guilty to laundering Bitcoin. According to Bloomberg, Qian was arrested and charged with two counts of money laundering. The UK’s Criminal Prosecution Service alleges that Qian possessed and transferred illegal cryptocurrency as part of a broader criminal operation prior to April 23.

The Involvement of Jian Wen

Authorities claim that Qian worked with Jian Wen, who has been sentenced for 6 years on the count of being involved in laundering plot. Police conducted raid on Wen’s residence to find 61,000 Bitcoin, currently valued over $4 billion. This arrest on Wed led the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation on Qian.

“Crypto Queen” Allegations

Qian is infamous with the name “Crypto Queen” , as she is accused of frauding 130,000 Chinese investors out of $5.6 billion between 2014 and 2017. However Qian denies all accusation and intends to fight back vigorously.

Trial Set for 2025

The trial is scheduled to begin in September 2025 at Southwark Crown Court, where another co-defendant, Seng Hok Ling, has also pleaded not guilty to related charges.

Qian’s case has drawn significant attention, as the broader legal proceedings around cryptocurrency crimes continue to evolve globally like the one which recently occured in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s Fraud Empire Exposed : Police Arrests 27 Individuals

Summary

Hong Kong police have managed to take down a notorious fraud syndicate responsible for stealing HK $360 million using romance scams connected to cryptocurrency platforms. The arrested 27 people revealed how they used deepfake and digital media expertise to fool victims across Asia.

Hong Kong police reported that they have dismantled a cross-border fraud syndicate, arresting 27 individuals responsible for defrauding victims of HK$360 million through romance scams. The operation targeted a highly organized group operating locally and overseas.

The scam started by first initiating a fake love relationship with the victim and luring them into buying sketchy cryptocurrency platforms, similar to Vietnam case. Most of the victims were men, scammers used deepfake to change their appearance and made video calls to convince them to invest into their platforms. The fraud ring produced a “training manual” in Chinese and English, teaching scammers different deception techniques. Arrested individuals’ ages ranged from 21 to 34, with several holding academic qualifications.

They operated from an industrial building Hung Hom for about a year, the group hired university graduates, especially from digital media, to serve as technology experts. The fraudulent platform ran like a legit business. Police seized over 100 phones, computers and luxury watches during the raid.

This case shows how cybercrime involving cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence are becoming more common lately.

Vietnamese authorities shut down crypto fraud

Vietnamese authorities shut down a crypto fraud run by a group from Laos. These foreign criminals defrauded victims of tens of billions of dong. Some key Vietnamese suspects trained for this digital deception have been arrested for their roles in this scheme, which included using fake cryptocurrencies to lure victims.

The criminal activities were based on the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos’ Bokeo Province. The group especially made romantic approaches to victims and eventually lured them into buying their shady cryptocurrency. Their platform is Biconomynft which is a fake app that promises amazing returns. Over several months, they have reportedly managed to steal 17.6 billion dong from Vietnamese victims.

Scammers use fabricated social media profiles and connect with the victim pretending to be their lover. Once the trust was secured, victims were convinced to invest in their bogus cryptocurrency app. To establish legitimacy small returns were given to them but larger sums were seized and the victim’s accounts were frozen.

The shutdown of this fraud shows how the crypto space is tightening its security. This gives definitive proof of Biconomynft being a scam platform.

KDX Exposed as Scam, Kaspa Issues Apology

KDX was a project that many people thought was real, but it turned out to be a scam. This means that the people behind KDX took money and disappeared, leaving many who trusted them very upset.

KRC-20 projects, trusted names in the Kaspa crypto world, have said they are sorry for what happened. Kaspa believed in KDX because the technology seemed to work fine when they tested it, and the person in charge of KDX was part of important groups, which made the project seem safe.

Now, everyone is being told to be careful. Before putting money into any project, it’s important to check if it’s real, ask questions if something doesn’t make sense, and take time to think before deciding.

This is a big lesson for everyone: always make sure something is safe before you trust it with your money.

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