Canadian banks have showed hesitation concerning the management of insolvent cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX’s assets, national public broadcaster CBC reports on Feb. 22. QuadrigaCX has faced financial difficulty following the sudden death of its founder Gerry Cotten, who was the allegedly only one with access to the exchange’s cold wallets. As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, QuadrigaCX has sent its remaining crypto assets from its hot wallets to Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the case. During Friday’s court hearing, lawyers for the Bank of Montreal and the auditing firm reportedly said that the banks are …

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking to contact investors in alleged ponzi scheme Bitconnect (BCC) that collapsed in January last year, a news statement confirmed on Feb. 20. As part of ongoing investigations into the activities of the well-known but shadowy scheme, the Cleveland branch of the U.S. law enforcement agency appealed to ex-investors to give information about their interaction with Bitconnect. A dedicated questionnaire is already available online, Special Agent Vicki D. Anderson explaining that responses would assist investigators in identifying those affected by monetary loss. “The FBI is seeking potential victims who invested in …

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has outlined what it believes to be the consistent threads running through fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO) schemes. The Bureau’s perspective was shared in an interview with Netherlands-based financial news site the Paypers on Feb. 19. According to the FBI, the key strategies of scam offerings include misrepresentations of their directors’ professional experience, an engineered false impression of how much traction the ICO has garnered in the industry, and unrealistic promises of prospective returns on tokens: “Like any investment product, rates of return can never be guaranteed and if it sounds too …

Cryptocurrency crime forms one focus of a dedicated cybercrime lab launched by Indian authorities this week, Indian daily news outlet The Hindu reported on Feb. 19. As part of efforts to step up the fight against internet-based adversaries, India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the cyber forensic lab and Cyber Protection Awareness and Detection Centre (CyPAD), which will be operated by police in Delhi. Within the lab, there will be a special unit focused on cryptocurrency, following years of problems involving scammers using the emerging phenomenon to commit crime. “We are now equipped with technology to recover data from …

Victims of an alleged cryptocurrency mining scam have filed claims against the suspected perpetrator with the Technology Crime Suppression Division in Thailand, the Bangkok Post reports on Feb. 18. Per the report, 30 people have filed a complaint with police, stating that they were fooled into an alleged investment scam called “CryptoMining.Farm.” This purportedly led the loss of 42 million baht ($1.34 million). Local authorities reportedly suspect that a total of 140 individuals were affected by the scam. CryptoMining.Farm, which has offices registered in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai, supposedly promised investors an annual return of 70 percent in addition …

Two prominent research papers have shed light on the latest crime trends affecting the cryptocurrency community over the past two years. Crypto analytics companies Chainalysis and CipherTrace released reports at the end of January that unpack some interesting data on the methods that criminals have used to steal and defraud users within the cryptocurrency and blockchain space. These reports paint an interest picture of the ever-changing cryptocurrency landscape and provides some food for thought about the use of crypto in criminal activity around the world. Exchange hacks and darknet trading still a threat As Chainalysis outlines in its January 2019 …

Law enforcement in Mumbai, India have exposed a group allegedly involved in a cryptocurrency scam that amassed an estimated 1 billion rupees (nearly $17 million), local media outlet The Times of India reports on Feb. 17. The case reportedly led to the freezing of several accounts in the country and to the arrest of four individuals — Sanjay Sontakke, Rajnikant Kumavat, Alpesh Barodia and Kirankumar Panchsara. According to The Times of India, the police are also looking for a fifth suspect, Ashok Goyal, who reportedly played a key role in the alleged scam. The complaint that led to the four …

Israel-based crypto brokerage Coinmama — which allows users to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) using a credit card — has suffered a major data breach affecting 450,000 of its users. The incident was disclosed in an official company announcement on Feb. 15. The breach is reportedly part of a mammoth, multi-platform hack that affected 24 companies and a total of 747 million records — among them gaming, travel booking and streaming sites. Coinmama says a list of around “450,000 email addresses and hashed passwords” of users who registered on its platform before Aug. 5, 2017 have been posted on …

Turkish police have arrested 24 people allegedly involved in a 13 million Turkish lira ($2.47 million) hack from an unnamed crypto firm in Istanbul, local government-backed media Daily Sabah reported on Feb. 12. Following a report of an alleged hack from a crypto-related company in Istanbul, the city police’s Cybercrime Department found that that stolen money was moved out directly from hacked accounts to accounts on other exchanges. The money was reportedly stolen in major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP). Turkish police further launched an operation to track the suspects, and discovered that the suspected individuals …

Cryptocurrency crime trends have been in the spotlight in recent weeks, but SIM swapping has been strangely absent in a number of reports on 2018. Cryptocurrency analytics companies CipherTrace and Chainalysis released two different reports focusing on the major crime trends in the space in 2018. While their data and findings sum up the biggest threats of the last 12 months, they’ve omitted the prevalence of SIM swapping in recent times. How it works SIM swapping is a relatively simple concept to understand, but the potential damage that can be done to an individual is scary, to say the least. …

Decentralized app (DApp) MetaMask is facing fresh problems from cryptocurrency scammers after malware impersonating the tool appeared on Google Play, cybersecurity company Eset reported on Feb. 8. The malware, which replaces computer clipboard information in an attempt to steal cryptocurrency, was removed by Google at the beginning of the month after a tipoff from Eset researchers. Known as a “Clipper,” the malware replaces copied cryptocurrency wallet addresses with an address belonging to an attacker in the hope that funds will be sent elsewhere without the user noticing. The discovery marked the first time such malware had made it past Google’s …

A new Bitcoin (BTC) scam website representing digital assets platform Bakkt has appeared on the internet, with its domain “bakktplatform.io” registered on Jan. 31. The fake Bakkt website claims that the launch of the platform will take place on March 12, also offering investors a chance to participate in another funding round, accepting “investments” in Bitcoin. Citing official data from the genuine Bakkt blog, the fake website mentions that the upcoming digital asset platform had raised $182.5 million in the end of 2018, and announced a second investment round for “all interested investors who believe in the future of the …