Law enforcement officers stopped the illegal activities of an IT fraudster who was embezzling money under the guise of trading bitcoins. The amount of damage caused amounted to more than 7,6 million hryvnias. About this reported the Cyber police of Ukraine.
Police officers from the Cybercrime Countermeasures Department in Sumy Oblast of the Cyberpolice Department of the National Police of Ukraine have exposed a 23-year-old resident of Kyiv Oblast who created a fake online platform that imitated the operation of a real crypto exchange. The essence of his criminal scheme was to mislead victims into believing that they were buying cryptocurrency, although in reality the money simply disappeared, and the bitcoins remained only on the screen.
The attacker used his technical knowledge to administer the fake website. He had full control over all its functions: he could change account balances, edit transaction history, and mislead users by creating the illusion of real cryptocurrency transactions.
The investigation revealed that a resident of Sumy was victimized as a result of such actions. The man wanted to buy $60 worth of Bitcoin. The suspect convinced him to register an account on a fake exchange and said he had transferred the cryptocurrency there. In fact, no transaction took place — the attacker appropriated all the funds.
Moreover, the fraudster was going to repeat the deception, he again approached the victim and offered to sell another bitcoin for $100. However, this time the police were already waiting for him. The suspect was detained with the force support of the special police company at the scene during the transfer of the money.
As a result of the authorized search, the police, in addition to cash, seized a mobile phone and a Lexus car from the man.
Investigators of the Sumy District Police Department under the procedural guidance of the Sumy District Prosecutor's Office informed the perpetrator of suspicion of fraud on a particularly large scale (Part 5 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
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