Germany Seizes 47 Crypto Exchanges Used By Ransomware Gangs (bleepingcomputer.com) 12
German law enforcement seized 47 cryptocurrency exchange services "that facilitated illegal money laundering activities for cybercriminals," according to BleepingComputer, "including ransomware gangs."
Long-time Slashdot reader Arrogant-Bastard shares their report: The platforms allowed users to exchange cryptocurrencies without following applicable "Know Your Customer" regulations, meaning that users remained completely anonymous when making transactions. This created a low-risk environment for cybercriminals to launder their proceeds without fearing prosecution or being tracked. "Exchange services that enable such anonymous financial transactions and thus money laundering represent one of the most relevant building blocks in the criminal value chain of the cybercrime phenomenon," reads a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announcement... When visiting any of the seized exchanges, you are now redirected to a warning page titled "Operation Final Exchange," which warns visitors that they have been deceived by the promises of anonymity by the operators of these platforms.
The new site notes years-long promises from the exchanges "that their hosting cannot be found, that they do not store any customer data and that all data is deleted immediately after the transaction...
"We have found their servers and seized them — development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data — and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses.
"Our search for traces begins. See you soon."
Long-time Slashdot reader Arrogant-Bastard shares their report: The platforms allowed users to exchange cryptocurrencies without following applicable "Know Your Customer" regulations, meaning that users remained completely anonymous when making transactions. This created a low-risk environment for cybercriminals to launder their proceeds without fearing prosecution or being tracked. "Exchange services that enable such anonymous financial transactions and thus money laundering represent one of the most relevant building blocks in the criminal value chain of the cybercrime phenomenon," reads a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announcement... When visiting any of the seized exchanges, you are now redirected to a warning page titled "Operation Final Exchange," which warns visitors that they have been deceived by the promises of anonymity by the operators of these platforms.
The new site notes years-long promises from the exchanges "that their hosting cannot be found, that they do not store any customer data and that all data is deleted immediately after the transaction...
"We have found their servers and seized them — development servers, production servers, backup servers. We have their data — and therefore we have your data. Transactions, registration data, IP addresses.
"Our search for traces begins. See you soon."
Good job Germany (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Good job Germany (Score:4, Interesting)
Let's wait what log data they actually got. The blustering is part of the game and essentially FUD until proven otherwise. Although even just having these switched off is already a good thing. Obviously, long-term, crapto will need to go away or become fully regulated.
Re: (Score:2)
There are always physical currencies, of course they have ups and downs, but something like gold bars sealed in the mint containers [1] can be used for a lot of things.
People tend to be clever, and here in the US, after Prohibition and the War on Drugs, if people want something even illegal, they will get it, so if dollars are banned, then people will turn to gold, silver, latinum, or other fungible, precious metals that are easily verified as not being tampered with. Anything fungible and fairly easy to v
Hard to cash out of crypto... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is one thing about crypto which the proponents have never answered. It is quite easy to buy into it... heck, there are Bitcoin ATMs out there that one can walk up to, show a QR code, and have stuff thrown into their wallet. However, the reverse... isn't so easy. Between fees, having to give tons of details to exchanges, and waiting periods... assuming the exchange is willing to cash you out, this can become a difficult exercise. To boot, since BTC is not anonymous, and there is a ton of people watching the BTC blockchain with advanced AI, it is worse than using PayPal in almost every way.
Yes, in theory, you can find some dude via a lookup service who might be willing to trade BTC for dollars, but I'd expect that to have a heavy price tag, and if he doesn't take down a ton of KYC info, there is a good chance that Interpol may suddenly be interested in him... and if he is willing to trade, he isn't going to be doing market rate for BTC, but a lot more in his favor, due to the time and trouble.
Re: (Score:3)
That is good to know. I thought PayPal got out of that business, but maybe it was when they stopped allowing for transparent use of Bitcoin instead of currency a while back. I don't care about KYC as much as I do about the crazy fees.
About damn time (Score:3)
Hosted in Germany? (Score:3)
That seems almost bizarre.
Cool, btw (Score:1)