Highlights:
- Upbit has reportedly returned $6 million to about 380 victims of telecom scams.
- Per reports, the fund recovery processes involved combined efforts from Upbit’s operator, Dunamu, and the Seoul Metropolitan Police.
- Upbit has adopted a similar recovery technique to refund over 8 billion won in the past.
Ajunews, a news outlet in South Korea, reported that Upbit has returned proceeds from fraudulent deals to 380 telecom scam victims. The exchange disbursed roughly 8 billion Korean won ($6 million) in its recent payout sprees.
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📢JUST IN: UPBIT, SOUTH KOREA’S LARGEST CRYPTO EXCHANGE, HAS RETURNED 8.5B WON ($6.07M) TO 380 VOICE PHISHING VICTIMS
— BSCN Headlines (@BSCNheadlines) November 22, 2024
Describing the telecom scam scheme in detail, Ajunews noted that it entailed voice phishing, also known as vishing, and a mobile-based fraudulent scheme. It entails malicious actors impersonating renowned business enterprises to extract personal information from unsuspecting victims.
By obtaining sensitive information from unsuspecting individuals, the hackers eventually gain unauthorized access to steal funds from their targets. It is worth noting that the scammers hide their identities by adopting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), making it difficult to track them.
While tracing voice phishing scam culprits might seem tricky, law enforcement agencies and other regulators rely on different routes of laundering stolen funds in their investigations. Because of its anonymity, scammers always target exchanges and other blockchain platforms as possible portals to move stolen assets.
The descriptions above were peculiar to the reported reimbursement involving the South Korean exchange Upbit. Therefore, the fund recovery was part of the exchange’s efforts to combat fraudulent acts, targeting crypto platforms for illicit transactions.
Upbit’s $6 Million Recovery Efforts
According to reports, the fund recovery processes involved joint efforts from two entities – the Seoul Metropolitan Police and Upbit’s operator, Dunamu. Notedly, Dunamu employed a real-time Fraud Detection System (FDS) as part of its recovery roles.
With the FDS, Upbit eventually halted illicit transactions, including vishing. Subsequently, the exchange seized the proceeds from such fraudulent transfers. Additionally, Upbit contacted the Seoul Metropolitan Police and signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its Mobile Criminal Investigation Unit in September 2023.
Crypto exchange Upbit aids recovery of $6M for scam victims with Seoul police
South Korean crypto exchange Upbit has helped recover and distribute roughly 8.5 billion won ($6 million) to around 380 victims of voice phishing scams, according to Aju Business Daily. In September of…
— CoinNess Global (@CoinnessGL) November 22, 2024
By signing the MOU, Dunamu established a cooperation system with the police, which helped them trace the voice phishing scam victims. Confirming the successful fund recovery and reimbursement, a Dunamu official stated: “Thanks to the active investigation cooperation of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Upbit’s tight FDS monitoring, we were able to protect users’ assets from voice phishing.”
Meanwhile, before now, Upbit had replicated a similar fund recovery scheme earlier this year, in February. Notedly, the South Korean-based exchange returned roughly 5 billion won to about 246 individuals. Additionally, the exchange repaid an extra 3.5 billion won to another 134 people.
South Korean Police Links Over $40M Scam Targeting Upbit to North Korean Hackers
Over the past few days, Upbit and South Korean regulatory authorities have been grabbing headlines with commendable achievements in crypto-related scam cases. In one of its old publications, Crypto2Community disclosed that South Korean police had uncovered a 2019 cyber theft involving Upbit, with subsequent losses of about 342,000 ETH.
In its report, the police revealed that it spotted hacker groups Lazarus and Andariel as the masterminds responsible for the over 300K ETH cyber heist. Per the statement, both companies share affiliation with the North Korean Reconnaissance General Bureau. It is worth noting that as of 2019, the 300K+ Ethereum boasts approximately 58 billion won ($41,493,333.40) in valuation.
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