Crypto
Law enforcement warns about the dangers of crypto scammers
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – An increasing number of people in the metro have been cheated out of their money through cryptocurrency scams. Scammers can get you even if you don’t use it.
Cryptocurrency scams have stolen billions worldwide and can snatch up your savings, too. Now, law enforcement has stepped up their game to help you stop it.
With a Bitcoin ATM at his gas station, Alfredo Antolin has seen many times firsthand, how people come to make transactions after they have received a phone call but don’t realize they have been scammed.
“I try to tell all the employees in there if they’re older and they’re on the phone, please check in with them,” Antolin said. “And make sure that they’re doing it on their own. That they know what they’re doing and they have their own account and they’re not pushing it to someone else’s.”
In 2023, the Federal Reserve Estimated 18 million adults in America used cryptocurrency, a 3% drop compared to the year before. Now in Clay County, Prosecutor Zach Thompson has seen a rise in scam cases.
“Scammers will direct investors to an online investing platform with the promise of a giant return when in fact they’re actually just stealing that person’s money,” Thompson explained. “The second type of scam, someone will call up their victim and pressure them to pay their bill with cryptocurrency.”
Lately, law enforcement has also seen thieves and drug dealers use digital assets to hide their dark money from the law. Now, investigators have gotten new training to track it down.
“It’s going to go over the basics of cryptocurrency so investigators can recognize potential evidence when they’re out in the field,” Thompson said.
Brian Karman led the course. And wants the public to know they can help you. So, never be afraid to report it.
“We have to take that report, we have to get that into the hands of the detective,” Karman said. “So, we can track those stolen funds and recoup those losses.”
Investigators notice more young people fall for scams like this than the elderly. If you do get involved, they advise you to use U.S.-based crypto companies which have more oversight.
Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.
Dec. 18 (UPI) — North Korea topped its own world record for cryptocurrency theft with a $2.02 billion haul in 2025, which accounted for about 60% of the world’s $3.4 billion in crypto thefts.
North Korea’s stolen crypto this year totaled $720 million and is 51% more than North Korea’s then-record $1.3 billion take in 2024. It raises to $6.75 billion its total in cryptocurrency thefts in recent years, according to a report released on Thursday by blockchain data provider Chainalysis.
Much of this year’s stolen cryptocurrency occurred when hackers working for North Korea’s hacking team in February pilfered some $1.5 billion worth of mostly ethereum cryptocurrency from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, NBC News reported.
The $1.5 billion Bybit theft set a world record for the most stolen in a single incident.
The North Korean hackers operate from the relative safety of a nation that mostly is closed to the outside world.
“It’s very difficult to stop, because there’s an asymmetry where they’re in general so cut off from the world and such a rogue state,” Matt Pearl, Center for Strategic and International Studies’ director of its Strategic Technologies Program, told NBC News.
North Korean hackers managed to steal more cryptocurrency this year despite carrying out fewer attacks, often with the help of IT workers within cryptocurrency services providers or through the use of impersonation tactics that target crypto executives, Chainalysis reported.
Once the cryptocurrencies are stolen online, North Korea’s hackers prefer to launder the proceeds through money laundering services that use the Chinese language, according to Chainalysis.
They also use bridge services and mixing protocols and take about 45 days to launder their stolen cryptocurrency after a particular theft.
A similar report in October by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said North Korean hackers conducted more than 30 hacking attacks to steal its record $2.02 billion in crypto with three months left in the year.
In addition to the Bybit theft, North Korean hackers also are blamed for stealing $14 million from nine accounts on the WOO X crypto exchange in July and $1.2 million from the blockchain funding site Seedify in September, among many other thefts.
About 40% of the proceeds from the cryptocurrency thefts are used to fund North Korea’s nuclear arms and other weapons development efforts.
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