Over a million dollars of cryptocurrency investments were “swindled”: four fraudulent call centers were exposed in Dnipro
The Security Service of Ukraine, together with the National Police and law enforcement officers of the Republics of Latvia and Lithuania, have dismantled a large-scale fraudulent scheme to defraud EU citizens. The leader of the criminal organization and 10 of his accomplices were detained in Dnipro.
This was reported by the press service of the SBU.
According to the investigation, the suspects swindled money from foreigners under the guise of investments in electronic exchanges. Over the course of a year, they received at least $1.2 million in illegal income.
To implement the scheme, the organizers created 4 call centers in Dnipro. Their operators called EU citizens and offered to invest in “promising” crypto projects.
To convince clients, they demonstrated rapid profit growth on an online platform that simulated the operation of a cryptocurrency exchange. The site displayed falsified charts with supposedly increasing asset values and “profitability” of investments that had no relation to real trading.
Initially, victims were offered a symbolic down payment, after which they were shown instant dividends. After that, the victims transferred increasingly larger amounts to the operators’ crypto wallets.
When the investment amount reached the maximum amount, the attackers stopped communicating with the clients and blocked their contacts.
During 40 searches of the offices and homes of the detainees, law enforcement officers seized mobile phones, computer equipment with evidence of illegal activity, as well as 21 million hryvnias in hryvnia equivalent, likely obtained through criminal means.
The detainees have been informed of the suspicion and are currently in custody. They face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
It was previously reported that law enforcement officers in Kyiv uncovered an organized group that fraudulently embezzled funds from foreign citizens through pseudo-trading platforms . Suspicion has been reported to three participants, a pre-trial investigation is underway, and the losses exceed millions of hryvnias.
We will remind that Ukrainian cyber police operatives joined the large-scale international special operation Checkmate , which resulted in the neutralization of the dangerous hacker network BlackSuit. The criminals demanded tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency for unlocking encrypted user data.
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