Nail 800 people a year are victims from scams for false investments in cryptocurrenciesaccording to data from the Mossos d’Esquadra. Fraudsters create a online platform that recreates a website investment and the victims, who see data and fake graphics about they Profitsthey think they are buying a virtual currency. However, the money goes directly to the scammers. Those affected by this deception can contribute between 20,000 Y €40,000 in total before realizing the deception. The Catalan police warns that crimes related to cryptocurrencies are rising between 15% and 20% each year. In 2021 he received the 1,600 complaints.
Although cryptocurrencies actively entered circulation 10 years, it was not until five years ago that the Mossos d’Esquadra detected that criminals were using them as another tool. “We saw that criminals used them in various ways: to hide their operationsto collect bailouts without a trace or to create investment scams“, explains in an interview in the ACN the head of the Central Area of Economic Crimes of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the sub-inspector Jose Angel Merino. The Catalan police assures that “contrary to what is believed”, cryptocurrency transactions can be traced: “It is difficult but not impossible”.
False investments, the main scam
Of the total of 1,600 complaints received by the Mossos linked to some virtual currency, some 800 correspond to a scam that the police call “false investments”.
This is a scam where the victim thinks they are investing in virtual currency but are actually sending money to a scammer. The deception begins when the individual offers a person advice to buy virtual currency. If he accepts, the scammer asks for a series of Payments from among 200 and 300 euros to register on a platform through which you can buy and invest in cryptocurrencies.
‘modus operandi’
The platform, however, is a mounting from scammers who recreate an investment website. There the victim sees data and graphs of the performance of their supposed cryptocurrencies. So the scammer tries to set up a trust bond With the victim, he convinces him that his investments are paying off and invites him to make more important contributions. According to Merino, the victims can contribute between 20,000 and 40,000 euros, always believing that they are investing them.
These scammers act as criminal gangs and each member has certain roles within the organization. organization: what it captures, what it retains, or what the false web platform creates, among others. According to Mossos investigations, these groups usually operate from ‘call centers‘ from Eastern Europealthough when they speak they do so in Castilianand all the contact they have with the victim they do on-line or by telephone.
When the victim wants to recover both the investment made as the benefits that he has theoretically obtained, the scammer asks him for more money under the pretext that they are management expenses for the transfer. Finally, the scammer disappears. “That’s when the victim realizes that she has suffered a scam and comes to the police station,” says Merino.
The training academies
One of the best known cases related to cryptocurrencies is that of the academy IM Academy. The product that this company supposedly sells are investment courses in virtual currency. But an investigation by the National Police revealed two months ago that it could be a pyramid scheme: they offer financial rewards to its members, to those who have contracted the courses, for each person they convince to take the same courses. In March, in fact, the police arrested eight people for this case, three of them in Catalonia.
In Catalonia, according to the head of the Central Area of Economic Crimes, no other cases of pyramid fraud have been detected, such as that of IM Academy, which bases its benefits on the permanent recruitment of new members, but “false training academies” do proliferate. They are academies that offer courses that cost between 2,000 and 8,000 euros. “promise the Financial Independence and use images of celebrities as a hook to make you believe that you will have a luxury life without making any effort”, illustrates Merino.
Scams difficult to prove
In this case, training sessions are given, always online, but the problem comes when users make investments in virtual currency, lose money and realize that they do not obtain the Profits that they had been promised. “In these cases it is very difficult to prove the scam because they say that they have given you the training that they had promised you. Sometimes the only thing that can be done is to put a civil lawsuit for false advertising“, adds the mosso.
Merino points out that those who most fall for these deceptions are young people, although he believes that a wide age range of between 20 and 40 years should be considered. In any case, he adds that if someone wants economic independence, investing in cryptocurrencies should be “the last option.”
‘Ransomware’ and ‘sextortion’
The researcher explains that the other main crimes linked to cryptocurrencies are the ‘ransomware‘ (data theft through a virus) and the ‘sextortion‘ (extortion in exchange for not publishing sexual images of the victim).
In these cases, criminals use cryptocurrencies to demand a ransom payment and thus hide the trace of the transaction. In fact, Merino points out that in recent years almost all the ransoms that have been requested in exchange for recovering stolen data or not to publish sexual images are always made with virtual currency. “Bitcoin is almost always used, which is the best-known currency and the easiest for victims,” he explains.
low incidence
Virtual currencies are also used by other Criminal organizations like the drug gangs, who use them to store money. They exchange their winnings for virtual currency and store in a USB external memory the keys that decrypt the currency and give access to it.
However, Merino points out that the incidence of cryptocurrencies in the criminal field is still low and the cash is still in the majority. “For two reasons: because virtual currencies suffer a lot of volatility and criminals want securityand because to invest it is necessary to have some technical notions they don’t always have,” he says.
yes it can be traced
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“If you have the perception that cryptocurrencies cannot be Track, but that is not correct. There are tools that allow you to know the traceability“, defends the sub-inspector of the Mossos. In fact, the body is collaborating with external companies that offer a traceability service. “In this way, in almost 90% of cases we can get to know what the virtual wallet where a illegal transaction and, ultimately, knowing who is the person behind it. It’s hard but it’s possible,” he says.
Most of the time it is paid to a wallet that is linked to a foreign account. What the Mossos do on these occasions is to send a request to the police of the country in question to obtain information or to seize the portfolio. “In 90 percent of the cases we obtain a satisfactory response,” says José Ángel Merino.