Welcome to The Crypto Alert of the Week series by AMLT, a series dedicated to documenting interesting or high profile frauds/hacks that recently happened and have been reported into the AMLT Network.
In a previous Coinfirm blog we documented how AMLT can be used to fight phishing scams across social media and especially twitter. We also documented how these entities use and target brands and people of a good reputation to entice their potential victims, one of these brands with a strong reputation that was used was Coinfirm itself. Well the topic has heated up even more as now more celebrities and brands somehow related to crypto are being used even more and in response Twitter has decided to try and protect a select few celebrities like Elon Musk while leaving the rest of the Twitter world to fend for themselves. Not only that, some major players in the crypto space are playing an active role in allowing these nefarious actors to use those funds throughout the system.
The AMLT Network and related token was created to allow anyone in the world to submit cryptocurrency addresses and related proof on nefarious actors such as those implementing these phishing schemes as well as ransomware, cryptojacking and other types of fraud plaguing the financial system. Above we documented how our clients and Network Members use the AMLT Network to submit data on nefarious actors using phishing schemes and identity theft of our brand on Twitter to try and pull funds out of potential victims. When looking at these cases we must realize that not only is Twitter tied directly to these phishing schemes but that major players and exchanges in the industry are also a part of it are not doing their part to help fight it by actively accepting their funds.
Granted, a lot of these entities do not yet use the Coinfirm AML/KYC Platform that would help them block or filter out such funds from entering their exchanges and platforms, but that’s not an excuse to knowingly and actively accepting funds from crime or theft. As the Coinfirm AML/KYC Platform and AMLT Network continues to gain adoption in the industry the network effect created will be able to eventually block out such actors from the financial system and prevent them from being able to easily cash out or use these funds.
In the report above you can see how through the AMLT Network providing us data and after our analysis we are able to implement quick actions that help prevent this actor and address from potentially further spreading risk. In this case, the perpetrator faked a Coinfirm twitter account and promised a giveaway of Ether for a small deposit. Although simple, the scheme can be very effective with some related addresses we’ve tracked pulling in millions of dollars. The funds taken from the phishing scheme that faked our identity ended up on Shapeshift, further showing how major players in the industry are helping criminals take advantage of cryptocurrency and use the funds they have from actions like phishing schemes.
