The US Secret Service is continuously tracking illegal digital asset transactions via fraud-related investigations, now seizing over $102 million worth cryptocurrency in total from offenders.
In an interview with CNBC at the agency headquarters, it was revealed that more than $102M in crypto has been seized in 254 cases since 2015 as per the data compiled by the Secret Service.
According to David Smith, assistant director of investigations, agents and analysts regularly track the flow of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, comparing it to tracing an email address.
Smith noted, “And once a person and another person make a transaction, and that gets into the blockchain, we have the ability to follow that email address or wallet address, if you will, and trace it through the blockchain.”
One of the investigations was done together with the Romanian National Police regarding a fraud related case where 900 people in the US were targeted.
The Secret Service went on to say that the scammers used popular online auction and sales websites to place bogus listings for high-end items that did not exist.
To validate their techniques, scammers also produced false invoices from ostensibly well-known companies. The crooks, according to the Secret Service, laundered money by transforming funds paid by victims into digital assets.
Other investigations focused on a ransomware attack linked to Russian and North Korean criminals, in which bitcoin payments made by US companies to stop the attacks were sent to the suspects’ crypto wallets.
Criminals frequently try to hide their traces from law enforcement by making as many transfers as possible, which Smith compared to a ‘house of mirrors’. To reduce volatility, stolen digital currency is frequently turned into stablecoins, he stated.
Smith added, “Because, you know, the criminals, they’re humans too. They want to avoid some of that market volatility associated with some of the major coins.”
The US Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and it frequently collaborates with other federal agencies, such as the FBI, CISA, and other international agencies, to accomplish its goals.
The number of crypto-related scams happening in the United States is rising day by day and the watchdogs are actively trying to trace down the fraudsters.
A day back the FBI, CISA and the US Treasury published an advisory warning against North Korea’s Lazarus hacking group who have targeted various firms, entities, and exchanges in the blockchain and crypto space using spear phishing drives and malware to steal cryptocurrency.
