France under threat. UNITED STATES, South Korea, NigeriaChina, in recent months the world’s police have dismantled numerous scams and we naively thought that France was more or less safe from these misdeeds. Unfortunately, today’s case reminds us that scammers have no borders and that the French are not safe from the actions of these 3.0 pirates. 14 people arrested, 6 indicted and damages of 1.2 million euros: a look back at the first French case of the year.
- France has been rocked by a massive scam linked to cryptocurrency, with 14 arrests and losses of 1.2 million euros.
- Scammers used bogus crypto investments to trap their victims, leading to numerous seizures, including bank accounts and luxury items.
The scammers first offered financial investments to get closer to their victims
Last Saturday, AFP learned from judicial sources of the arrest of 14 people as part of an investigation opened on November 5 by the anti-cybercrime section of the Paris public prosecutor’s office. Following this, six were indictments and five imprisoned. They are suspected of having participated in a large-scale cryptocurrency scam.
First of all, here are the charges detailed by the prosecution:
“The charges are as follows: organized theft, aggravated money laundering, participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime, fraudulent access and maintenance in an automated data processing system committed in a gang organized, it being specified that not everyone is indicted under all of these qualifications. »
Paris prosecutor’s office – Source: Le Figaro
Justice then specifies that of the six people, one of them was minor at the time of the facts. The judge of freedoms and detention therefore preferred to leave him free under judicial supervision. Furthermore, regarding the identity of the suspects, Le Parisien affirmed this weekend that several suspects would be of Serbian origin, without however succeeding in obtaining more information.
The judicial police and specialized COMCYBER-MI gendarmes arrest several people
A word now about the operating mode of this gang which got closer to its victims by offering financial investments. She then claimed to verify the reliability of her victims by an initial transfer in cryptocurrency. The rest is told by the Parisian prosecutor’s office:
-“The suspects are suspected of having offered false investments, and of claiming to verify the financial reliability of their victims by a cryptocurrency transfer, while observing the codes created to obtain unlocking. The damage is estimated at more than 1.2 million euros. Seizures were made of bank accounts, cryptocurrencies, vehicles and luxury leather goods, for an amount estimated at several hundred thousand euros. »
Paris prosecutor’s office – Source: Le Figaro
The investigation was successfully carried out by the HILLS (Brigade for the repression of clever delinquency of the Parisian judicial police) and the gendarmes of COMCYBER-MI (Command of the Ministry of the Interior in cyberspace). Finally, the last information given by the vice-prosecutor at the Paris public prosecutor’s office and head of the anti-cybercrime section concerns the use of “Snatch the cyber dog, trained to detect computer components” who therefore realized “the first search with an e-dog” !
This case ultimately reminds us that no one is safe and that in crypto even more than elsewhere, any suspicious behavior, any strange request must be taken seriously and that we should never send funds before being sure of their destination. Be careful, take care of yourself and your wallets, because modern agrefins are roaming and their greed is matched only by their creativity.
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