An interview from the Global Investigative Operations Center in Washington, D.C. revealed the Secret Service is cracking down on cybercrime and seized more than $100 million in crypto. 

The Secret Service’s Assistant Director of Investigations, David Smith, shared a lot of information in this interview. He spoke on the prevalence and investigation of these crypto-related thefts. 

The Secret Service is more well-known for the protection of the President of the United States. However, the authority also oversees financial and cybersecurity investigations.

“One of the things about cryptocurrency is that it moves money at a faster pace than the traditional format… The quick pace of transactions makes it attractive to both American consumers and criminals. What criminals want to do is sort of muddy the waters and make efforts to obfuscate their activities. What we want to do is to track that as quickly as we can, aggressively as we can, in a linear fashion,” Smith said about the prevalence of crypto-related money laundering.

But who is committing these fast-paced crimes?

Big-time criminals. 

Secret Service reveals where was the $100 million in crypto seized from

Since 2015, the Secret Service has confiscated a total of $102 million in crypto. They linked 254 open cases to those assets. 

A Russian cybercrime syndicate was one of the mentioned perpetrators. They laundered money through a ransomware scheme in which the suspects had the stolen funds transferred to their crypto-wallets.

The largest crypto heist to date, committed by North Korean hackers, was very similar. 

Another case mentioned was based in Romania and affected 900 U.S. victims. The criminals sold items that didn’t exist on auction sites and faked their delivery. The ill-begotten money was turned into cryptocurrency as well. 

This statement from the Secret Service further solidifies that cryptocurrency may not be as safe an investment as it seems. It appears that these sorts of cybercrimes will continue as long as security remains an issue. 

H/T: NBC News

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