In a cyber sleuthing breakthrough, Austrian police have unraveled an intricate web of deception spun by a criminal network believed to have swindled over €1.2 million ($1.26 million) from unsuspecting investors, primarily in the realm of digital assets. The victims of this crypto heist were predominantly Austrian.
The proverbial puppet master pulling the strings of this elaborate charade is reportedly a 39-year-old Dutch man of Serbian descent. His identity remains undisclosed. Currently serving a three-year sentence, he was apprehended earlier this year in Milan in a joint operation involving Europol.
In a wicked twist to a classic scam known as “Rip Deal” in Austria, the fraudsters have reportedly integrated digital currency into their operations. Traditionally, the scam involved the purchase and subsequent resale of high-value items, such as luxury watches, using counterfeit money. However, in the reinvented “Rip Deal 2.0,” the criminals allegedly purchased digital assets with phony cash.
The Austrian police have relentlessly pursued these fraudsters for over three years. The lead investigator, who has been painstakingly piecing together the myriad elements of this scam, has been liaising with numerous victims, each one duped by the Dutch suspect and his accomplices.
In a fortuitous turn of events, an Austrian businessman, on the verge of losing $137,000 to the scam, was saved by his daughter, a police officer. She spotted the hallmark signs of a Rip-Deal. The fraudsters had convinced the man to transfer the money into a digital asset wallet as part of a payment for an industrial machinery deal.
The lead detective disclosed that the scammers typically lure their victims to upscale hotels overseas. Payment is invariably made in digital assets with victims tricked into revealing their passwords or ‘seed phrases’ for cryptocurrency wallets. The fraudsters then use this information to seize control of the wallets and drain them of their assets.
Rip-Deal 2.0 is among a series of digital currency scams that the Vienna police have been investigating in recent years. With over 100 such cases solved since 2020, amounting to losses of $26.3 million, Chief Inspector Gerald Goldnagl, who heads the city’s Rip-Deal unit, is at the forefront of these investigations.
Worldwide, digital asset scams continue to plague millions of victims. Stolen funds and ransomware are the two primary channels for these cybercriminals, who reportedly pilfered $1.58 billion and generated an additional $460 million through ransomware in the first half of the year alone, according to a Chainalysis mid-year report.
In a separate development, Ledger users are being targeted by scammers using spoof emails. The fraudsters masquerade as Ledger support staff and use fear tactics to coerce users into revealing their recovery phrases. Ledger has since issued a statement reminding its users that it would never solicit their recovery phrases via call, text, or email. It further assured users that its systems have been fortified to ensure the highest standards of security.
As the line between the digital and physical world blurs, scams like these serve as a stark reminder of the importance of caution and vigilance in safeguarding one’s digital assets.
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