Greater Manchester Police (GMP) announced over £4m ($5.44m, €4.79m) has been returned to rightful owners after officers rumbled an international crypto-currency scam six months ago.
Some $22.25m (£16.37m, €19.61m) was seized by specialist officers from GMP’s economic crime unit in July 2021, after intelligence led to the discovery of USB sticks containing huge sums of crypto-currency Ethereum.
A total of 150 victims from all over the world contacted officers in the unit following the scam-bust which saw millions of pounds invested in a alleged fake savings and trading service.
According to GMP on 18 February 2022, over £4m has been returned to 23 victims and another 127 reported claims are currently being investigated by officers alongside partners in international law enforcement across the globe.
This leaves another £7m still left to be returned to rightful owners.
Details
Victims based in the UK, US, Europe, China, Australia and Hong Kong had deposited money, including life savings, into what they thought was an online savings and trading service using Binance Smart Chain, which stores and records transactions made in crypto-currency confirming their movement and value.
The scammers operating the service waited until a large sums of money had been deposited, before shutting down the website and transferring the funds into their own accounts.
The GMP said: “Specialist officers received intelligence that those running the scheme had been in Manchester for a limited time and tracked them down, recovering an encrypted USB stick containing $9.5m of stolen Ethereum.
“A 23-year-old male and a 25-year-old female were arrested for fraud and money laundering offences. They have since been released under investigation pending further enquiries.
“They found a further $12.7m a few days later after locating a Cryptograph safety deposit box, effectively an online safe, and the code to access it.”
‘Exploit the trend’
Joe Harrop, detective chief inspector from GMP’s economic and cyber crime unit, said: “Crypto-currency saving and trading services are becoming increasingly popular, with projects offering incentives to people to invest significant amounts of money, offering tokens that can then be sold for a profit.
“Our lives are now online or on our phones, and currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are often seen as the future when it comes to money and trading. However, this type of crime is increasing across the globe and criminals are getting savvier by finding ways to exploit the trend, in ways even the most experienced users can’t anticipate.
“Anyone involved in these crypto-currency and trading services are urged to take extreme caution and do a lot of research as there are still huge risks.
“Thankfully, we’ve returned over four million pounds to 23 individual victims and we’re continuing to work through a large number of other reported claims where we can hopefully return even more money. We believe there may still be victims out there from all over the world who are owed some of this money we rumbled half a year ago.”
