The Greater Manchester Police have managed to return $22.3 million (equivalent to £15m*) in virtual currency to its rightful owners after successfully bringing down a dodgy crypto savings and trading service. To ensure the thugs behind this con are brought to justice, specialist officers from the Manchester police force were able to seize approximately 150 bitcoins totaling about $18 million (£12m). So far 23 claimants have been verified by police and had their money returned. Detective Chief Inspector Joe Harrop, an economic and cyber crime expert from the Greater Manchester Police force said “It is becoming apparent that these scams are opening up a new type of criminal enterprise and we want our communities to be aware of these risks before they fall prey or become involved in these crimes.”
It is certainly a nice change to hear about a cryptocurrency scam that has a happy ending for the victims. While cybercriminals are certainly becoming more sophisticated in exploiting cryptocurrency investors, it appears that police are beginning to catch on and are making arrests. Bravo!
We\’re seeing an increasing number of raids and busts on crypto scams, ransomware attackers, and other types of coordinated online crime. Police are learning how to investigate and track down these criminals. But crypto investors shouldn\’t feel safer just yet. There\’s still no insurance for crypto investments and new vulnerabilities are still being discovered in popular protocols, which can allow them to be stolen. The vast majority of cryptocurrency-related crimes go unpunished.