Barcelona”Cryptocurrencies are a window of opportunity”, explains the Superintendent of the Mossos d’Esquadra Òscar Macarella, head of the Territorial Criminal Research Division. The problem is that they are for everyone: for companies, banks and citizens, but also for criminals. “Cryptocurrencies are accompanied by threats and challenges,” reflects the police chief, adding that being a currency that is “very untraceable” it is “ideal” for organized crime. For this reason, when hackers attack public bodies and companies, they often ask for ransom in cryptocurrencies, or when fraudsters seek to deceive a private individual, they often do so in investments with virtual currencies. In fact, the Mossos last year investigated around 3,500 complaints linked to cryptocurrencies, 30% more than the previous year, and dealt with 600 cyberattacks. In the State as a whole, 17,000 victims of scams related to cryptocurrencies have been counted.
For six years, the Mossos have been organizing conferences on organized crime, and by all these indicators this year they have dedicated them to cryptocurrencies. They started this Thursday and the aim, explains the mayor, is to “share knowledge” and “forge alliances”. They will do it with other State police, but also European ones, because Europol and the Dutch police, among others, have assisted. There are also representatives of the judiciary, the Prosecutor’s Office and the private sector to provide training on the subject. Precisely, the chief commissioner of the Mossos, Eduard Sallent, has remarked that the police must increase their training and specialize more in this type of crime. And the Mossos are clear about the reference: the Forex case.
A year ago, the Mossos led a joint investigation with the Civil Guard and the police of seven countries that managed to dismantle an international criminal group that defrauded 20,000 people in Spain alone. The organization earned 400 euros every minute with the same technique: from call centers located in Albania and Ukraine deceived thousands of customers by assuring them that by investing in cryptocurrencies they would get a lot of profit. They would even simulate these benefits for months so that the victim would put more and more money into it. In the end, they had them all. The Mossos had to adapt to the new realities and even created new software from scratch to catch them.
The ‘black figure’
Crimes committed online are particularly worrying because of their increase, but also because of the method. “The bait is very simple,” comments Intendant Macarella. In other words, promise quick and sure profits. In addition, there is another problem that the head of the body, commissioner Sallent, has expressed: the black number of cases that are not reported is “much higher” than in other areas. And the complaints are on the rise: in 2022, the Mossos investigated a total of 60,048 incidents linked to the Internet, a fact that already represents 12% of all investigations. In total, this represents an annual increase of 30%.
In all of this we don’t just have to stay with the scams, as cryptocurrencies are also a mechanism that many criminal groups use to transact money right now. They don’t necessarily have to be hackers: in several drug-trafficking operations, the Mossos have already detected that traffickers pay each other with virtual currencies.
Tips for not falling for a financial scam
When you receive a call from a crypto-currency company or find its website, the police advise you to check the information of that company. Consult, for example, the opinions of other users or see where their social headquarters are located. If it is located in a tax haven, you should be suspicious immediately. Either way, getting an idea of the company’s reputation, according to the police, is a critical step before investing money.
2023-10-19 19:31:21
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