Monday, November 25

Cryptocurrencies: a Venezuelan financial advisor, wanted for scamming out of more than $ 1 million dollars


Hombre venezolano se inventó un secuestro para robar un millón de dólares en criptomonedas.
Venezuelan man invented a kidnapping to steal a million dollars in cryptocurrencies.

Photo: Photo by Karolina Grabowska at Pexels. / Pexels

A Venezuelan financial advisor to 23 years is wanted by the authorities of that country, after being denounced for fraud by making his clients believe that they had kidnapped and stolen crypto assets that he handled in various wallets. The theft was for more than $ 1.1 million.

The cybercriminal in question, simulated his own kidnapping and told his clients that he was forced to enter the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in which he handled other people’s assets, and forced to transfer all crypto assets.

The man of Venezuelan origin managed several wallets and funds in bitcoin, a total of 23 , 66 BTC. The total value of the stolen assets was $ 1. 150.

dollars at the time of the robbery, according to the value of that currency.

The information was released by Douglas Rico, the Director of the Investigative Police (CICPC) of Venezuela, and a photo of the man in question was published on the social network and pages of the police force with a: ” Wanted for money laundering and scam. ”

In Venezuela, this new modality of hijacking and collecting reward in cryptocurrencies is not new . At the beginning of August, a man of 39 was kidnapped in a region of the country, and As a ransom the amount of 1.5 BTC was requested, that is, more than $ 70, 000 Dollars. Amount that was paid incomplete, because the family did not have the funds, and later the victim was found dead in the middle of the street, according to the authorities of that country.

Meanwhile, in the United States the theft of cryptocurrencies or the request for ransom in cryptocurrencies has also become a modality, but mainly by hackers who “hijack” large platforms or companies and then request a payment in exchange . Both the government and major companies in the country have been forced to make millionaire payments in this currency .

A recent example was the case of the meat processor JBS , one of the most important in the United States, which had to pay 300 bitcoins as ransom for the cyber attack executed by a group of Russian cybercriminals. The bitcoins were paid at the market price at that time, which gave a total of $ 11 millions of dollars in order to protect the company from further attacks.

In Venezuela, it is increasingly common the use of cryptocurrencies in commercial business. And it is not only about the local cryptocurrency, the Petro, but they also accept other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, dash, ethereum, litecoin, theter, XPT and others, which suggests people are becoming more confident in digital currency and criminals are looking for victims.