New type of corporate fraud worth $340 million
The massive growth of the crypto market in recent years has created enormous opportunities for scammers from all over the world to skillfully deceive users. Statistics from the analytical platform Chainalysis showed, that in 2021, crime victims lost or paid out the equivalent of $14 billion, which is almost 600% more than the previous year. And this is only publicly recorded data.
Over the past few months, Impact Theory, Vladimir Okhotnikov’s Meta Force, Wright Thurston’s Green United, and a number of other small companies have become victims of scammers. According to some estimates, the damage from blackmail could reach $340 million.
One of the defendants in a number of corporate extortion cases was a native of Kazakhstan, Khamitzhan Dikhaev. Together with their “colleagues”, Khaled Abitaev and Bakyt Zholmanov, in 2008 they received prison sentences ranging from 2 to 7 years for embezzling budget funds worth $3.1 million.
Today, they began to take money from individual startups. Most of their victims are young technology companies developing their business in the cryptocurrency sector, AI technologies and other innovative areas.
Former defendants and defendants in the criminal case have already carried out similar scams in 2018 against the founders of the Forsage Ponzi pyramid. Those affected by his actions also included Elena Oblamskaya (“Lola Ferrari”), Mikhail Sergeev (“Mike Mooney”), Gleb (“Gleb Million”) and Sergei Maslakov. After which Khamitzhan Dikhaev was put on the international wanted list in 2019, as reported by the press service of the Department of Economic Investigations of the Kostanay region.
And this is only a small part of the consequences of the development of the crypto market. The growth of the industry and the success of its individual participants inevitably leads to the emergence of new threats, even if the methods are old. In simple words, we see scammers using a racket known to everyone from the 90s. However, the development of the Internet has made its own adjustments to the “proven” extortion schemes. And the development of artificial intelligence has made it possible not only to fake screenshots and photographs, but even to create a fake version of a person when communicating via video conference.
This is now the most common type of malicious activity. If hacking and theft relies on user inattention, negligent use of software, or visiting unverified Internet resources, then blackmail is aimed at public people. And this causes huge concerns among cybersecurity companies and traditional authorities. Not only local structures are concerned with the problem, but also global regulators such as the U.S. SEC.
There are no easy solutions to this situation. The situation is complicated by the fact that getting on the trail of the criminal is not so easy. Blackmail can occur in messenger chats, or from fake pages of accounts on social networks. It is also worth clarifying that attackers can use advanced technologies to hide their location.
We can only remain skeptical of any information we receive online, and exercise reasonable caution offline as well.