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DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

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Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#151

Post by itopaloglu83 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #147
Reason077 wrote: post #62

Wow. $15 billion is an astronomical, nearly unfathomable amount of money in Cambodia. This must have been a huge operation. It's almost 1/3 of the country's entire GDP! Well done DOJ. Hopefully the victims get their money back.

Compared to Cambodia, sure, but it's an international crime gang, with this particular one being just one branch. I wonder if this was their biggest hoard or if they had more? Really poor financial management to have all that money concentrated that much though. It either means they dropped the ball bigly, or this is spare change for them... although Bitcoin's market cap is $2.24 trillion at the moment, $15 billion i…

In $5 wrench we trust. - Bitcoin

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#153

Post by nashashmi »

mrtksn wrote: post #111

It's 127,271 Bitcoins. Interesting choice not to mention the number of Bitcoins but use its current market value in USD. I feel like this says something about Bitcoin but not sure what exactly. Edit: Wow, people really don't want to know how many Bitcoins were seized :)

It says Bitcoin is not a standard denomination. Sort of like if you are in France, and Disney bought Discovery, you would want to know the buying price in euros, not US dollars.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#154

Post by kevinak »

itopaloglu83 wrote: post #151
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compared to Cambodia, sure, but it's an international crime gang, with this particular one being just one branch. I wonder if this was their biggest hoard or if they had more? Really poor financial management to have all that money concentrated that much though. It either means they dropped the ball bigly, or this is spare change for them... although Bitcoin's market cap is $2.24 trillion at the moment, $15 billion i…

In $5 wrench we trust. - Bitcoin

That doesn't appear to be how they seized the funds though, the criminal hasn't been caught so they must have hacked his devices to gain access to the private keys. No $5 wrench involved.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#155

Post by kevinak »

HPsquared wrote: post #138
eloisius wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely it would be possible for victims to come forward and provide a paper trail of WhatsApp transcripts and blockchain transactions.

That's the thing with Bitcoin, all transactions are permanently stored in a public ledger.

Unless the criminals used the Lightning Network of course, not likely though since the amount is so large.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#156

Post by laser »

With the recent insane moves in quantum stocks almost makes me wonder if there’s a possibility the NSA or other USG agency is far enough ahead of publicly known capabilities in quantum computing to brute force private keys/break encryption and this info is leaking into markets.

Of course the more likely explanation is that this was a sophisticated albeit classical hack (infrastructure, social engineering, surveillance, whatever) and the quantum run-up is unrelated retail investor hysteria, but have to consider the possibility the market knows something I don’t. If the government stays far ahead enough of private industry at some point in the coming years (or decades) the USG will break encryption without public disclosure unless quantum resistant algs are put in place before that capability is achieved. Hopefully this more exotic implausibility isn’t the explanation, but entertaining to consider, and history is bizarre enough for it to be true.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#158

Post by jacknews »

wraptile wrote: post #77
decimalenough wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it was a "Russia invading Ukraine" sized miscalculation. The "wily" Cambodian leader's military got their asses handed to them by the Thai army, and Cambodia is suffering a lot more from the still ongoing border closure than Thailand is. Remittances, tourism, trade, you name it, it's all in the doldrums. (Good time to visit Angkor Wat if you can swing it, though.)

I'm living in Thailand and been following scam centers for years now. It's 100% the scam center fallout mixed with regional politics. Cambodia is fully commited to scam centers and Thailand doesn't like that and even reached out to Xi directly for cooperation here. Not even a year later the conflict broke. Finally, cambodia is not suffering at all and if anything the current dictator has become significantly stronger…

Cambodian people are suffering, no doubt about it, but what you say about the surge in nationalism and entrenching his position is certainly true; the 'leadership' has only gotten stronger.

It's surreal how Cambodians are blindly, even passionately, following the government narrative of evil rapacious Thailand invading innocent peace-loving Cambodia, when there is strong evidence showing it was Cambodia provoking the issue to meddle in Thai politics, but there is such deep-seated pride (on both sides I think) that truth is disregarded.

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#159

Post by horseradish7k »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #94

Who they were scamming, Americans? How they managed to gain trust, even considering strong accent or grammatical mistakes. How do they identify and trace these Chinese fraudsters? They all look the same and have a name like Hi Lo. Where the money go... of course real estate.

this should answer some of your questions: https://youtu.be/vu-Y1h9rTUs

Re: DOJ seizes $15B in Bitcoin from 'pig butchering' scam based in Cambodia

#160

Post by dan-robertson »

laser wrote: post #156

With the recent insane moves in quantum stocks almost makes me wonder if there’s a possibility the NSA or other USG agency is far enough ahead of publicly known capabilities in quantum computing to brute force private keys/break encryption and this info is leaking into markets. Of course the more likely explanation is that this was a sophisticated albeit classical hack (infrastructure, social engineering, surveillanc…

I would go with the likely explanation here.
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