Thai Police Bust $15M Scam Ring Targeting Koreans in Crypto, Romance, Lottery Fraud
Thai authorities have dismantled a $15 million rip-off ring accused of concentrating on over 870 South Koreans via an elaborate community of crypto, romance, and pretend lottery schemes.
Key Takeaways:
- Thai and South Korean police arrested 33 members of a $15M rip-off ring concentrating on over 870 South Koreans.
- The group used a mixture of crypto fraud, romance scams, and pretend lottery schemes to deceive victims.
- Funds have been laundered via pay as you go playing cards, OTC brokers, and micro-transactions coordinated through encrypted apps.
The group, working beneath the identify “Lungo Company,” was described by investigators as a uncommon instance of “multi-layered laundering” that blended a number of types of fraud to obscure its path.
Seoul and Thai Police Arrest 33 in Cross-Border Crypto Scam Crackdown
The Seoul Metropolitan Police announced the arrest of 25 suspects linked to the group, whereas Thai police apprehended the ringleader and eight core members.
All 9 are presently in custody in Thailand and awaiting extradition to South Korea.
Unlike earlier fraud operations that sometimes used a single technique, Lungo Company employed a variety of ways.
Victims have been tricked into sending funds through faux compensation presents for knowledge breaches, romance scams, or by being led to speculate in nugatory cryptocurrencies via fraudulent platforms.
“This group used a number of ways in a scientific manner,” a police official mentioned. “It wasn’t a one-dimensional rip-off—it was structured and layered.”
The group’s laundering playbook additionally possible included pay as you go playing cards, on line casino cash-outs, and splitting transactions into micro-amounts to evade detection programs.
For closing liquidation, they relied on high-volume OTC brokers throughout Southeast Asia, coordinated via encrypted apps like Telegram and WeChat.
The case comes weeks after Seoul police dismantled one other worldwide cybercrime ring that stole $28.1 million from South Korean elites, together with celebrities and executives, by hacking into monetary and crypto accounts.
$3.5B LuBian Hack Revealed as Largest Bitcoin Heist Ever Confirmed
A beforehand undisclosed hack from December 2020 has now been confirmed as the largest crypto theft ever, with 127,426 BTC, value $3.5 billion then and almost $14.5 billion right now, stolen from Chinese mining pool LuBian.
The breach, uncovered by Arkham Intelligence, exploited weaknesses in LuBian’s non-public key era system.
LuBian had emerged quickly in 2020 as one of many high Bitcoin mining swimming pools, branding itself as a protected and high-yield platform.
By early 2021, the pool vanished with out rationalization, resulting in hypothesis of regulatory shutdown or privatization. Arkham’s findings level to a dramatic hack because the trigger.
The majority of LuBian’s BTC, over 90%, was drained in a single day, adopted by extra losses the subsequent day through Bitcoin and USDT transfers on the Omni layer.
The stolen cash have remained dormant since July 2024. LuBian tried to contact the thief through Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN operate, providing a reward.
While Mt. Gox’s collapse concerned extra BTC in complete, the LuBian incident marks the biggest confirmed crypto heist in phrases of worth on the time it occurred. The attacker’s id stays unknown, and the stolen property have but to floor.
The publish Thai Police Bust $15M Scam Ring Targeting Koreans in Crypto, Romance, Lottery Fraud appeared first on Cryptonews.
