Europol busts Latvian cryptocurrency phishing ring, seizes millions of dollars

Europol has busted a large-scale cryptocurrency phishing ring responsible for the theft of at least $5.7 million. Criminals based in Latvia operated millions of fake accounts to defraud users across Europe.

Police have seized $330,000 in cryptocurrency from criminals, but more money may be missing. Cryptocurrency fighters around the world are working to crack down on phishing scams, but it will be a long battle.

Europol fights crypto phishing

Cryptocurrency crimes of all kinds are on the rise, but one of the most prevalent is phishing scams. While only $5 million was stolen in April, $12 million was stolen in August through these crimes, and that number continues to grow.

However, Europol just took down a cryptocurrency phishing group, which could ease the burden.

According to a Europol press release, this SIM “rental farm” operated 49 million fake accounts worldwide to carry out phishing attacks. It has been linked to at least 1,700 digital fraud cases, stealing at least $5.7 million from victims in Latvia and Austria alone.

However, most of the victims were Russian speakers, and Russia is not a member of Europol. In other words, the group may have stolen even more money.

Hard assets seized by police totaled less than $1 million, excluding several luxury cars and hardware that facilitated the crime.

These hackers used a variety of tactics, including impersonating loved ones and law enforcement, fraudulent business transactions, and even heinous methods such as distributing child sexual abuse material for blackmail purposes.

Will this reduce the number of cryptocurrency scam calls?

The group was based in Latvia and was clearly familiar with the cryptocurrency industry. Police seized approximately $330,000 in various tokens. Although Europol’s statement does not seem particularly concerned with distinguishing cryptocurrency phishing incidents from non-Web3 crimes, it is very likely that they are.

It is expected that more details will be revealed in the future. These criminals may be using cryptocurrencies solely for money laundering. Alternatively, they may have created a Web3 native attack.

In any case, Europol has been making great strides in the fight against crypto crime recently, and this phishing organization appears to be part of that. Digital crime fighters have been actively working to combat these scams, which have become particularly vicious these days.

For example, AI-generated voices are enabling more daring impersonation phishing scams, and at least one crypto enthusiast hopes Europol will cut them down. Still, this battle will be long and difficult.

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