South Korea has sought the help of the United States in its efforts to crack down on illegal crypto activities. However, in its quest to retrieve stolen funds, the officials were stuck tackling one such phishing scam from 2017. This is when it decided to utilize resources from the United States to help catch the scammers.
The prosecutor in Seoul confirmed this news and revealed arresting two South Koreans suspected to be behind the cybercrime. The Supreme Prosecutors Office [SPO] confirmed the identity of one Japanese suspect based on intelligence provided by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] in 2018.
As per reports from regional media publications,
“The SPO and the FBI then teamed up to seize crypto assets from one of the Korean suspects and have so far paid about 140 million won (US$118,000) in restitution to some fraud victims.”
The three individuals hacked IDs and passwords of South Korean and Japanese visitors to a US-based phishing site disguised as a Ripple-related site. The scam website was active for seven months from June 2017, eventually leading to a theft of 900 million won. This sum was equivalent to 2.35 billion won in current value and was taken from 24 South Korean visitors and 37 Japanese visitors.
The FBI transferred this information to the SPO leading to the discovery of the suspects along with the stolen funds.
An official from the SPO stated,
“Cryptocurrency scams are difficult to track down. This is the first time that the prosecution has successfully carried out the whole process of investigation and damage recovery through international cooperation.”
The country has already been tightening regulations around the crypto industry and trying to become a leading crypto regulator. Recently, it updated Anti Money Laundering [AML] policy which caused the closure of hundreds of small and medium crypto exchanges.