Europol Launches War On Crypto Crime With Major Crackdown
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Europol broke down a major crypto phishing ring responsible for at least $5.7 million in thefts. Criminals based out of Latvia operated millions of fake accounts to scam users across Europe. Police seized $330,000 in crypto from the criminals, but more money may be unaccounted for. Crypto crimefighters worldwide are trying to crack down on phishing scams, but it’ll be a long battle. Europol Fights Crypto Phishing All varieties of crypto crime are skyrocketing right now, but phishing scams are especially prevalent. These crimes stole $12 million in August after only $5 million in April, and the number keeps rising. Sponsored Sponsored However, Europol just broke down a crypto phishing scam ring, potentially easing the burden: Europol and Latvian law enforcement dismantled five servers, seized 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 active SIM cards. The criminals were linked to over 1,700 cyber fraud cases in Austria and 1,500 in Latvia, causing losses of several million euros, including EUR 4.5 million in… pic.twitter.com/cJbRBOwKd9 — AlexandruC4 (@AlexandruC4) October 18, 2025 According to Europol’s press release, this SIM “farm-for-hire” operated 49 million fake accounts to do phishing attacks worldwide. It was linked to at least 1700 digital fraud cases, and stole at least $5.7 million from victims in Latvia and Austria alone. Most of its victims, however, were Russian speakers, and Russia is not a member of Europol. In other words, the group may have stolen a much larger amount. Police seized less than $1 million in hard assets, not including a few luxury cars and hardware that facilitated the crimes. These hackers used a variety of tactics from impersonating loved ones or law enforcement, fraudulent business deals, and even heinous methods like distributing child sexual abuse material for blackmail purposes. Will This Reduce Crypto Scam Calls? The group was based in Latvia,…
Filed under: News - @ October 20, 2025 9:28 pm