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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

#231

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

cjonas wrote: post #228
pantalaimon wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Khesrau Behroz did an amazing podcast about those operations (in German though) [0]. Basically when there was a crack down on providers of illegal sports betting in China, they went abroad and diversified. The betting operation is used to launder the money from those scam operations and betting is still immensely popular in China and done via VPN. Those East Asian sport betting providers are sponsors of many Champion…

There's an interesting "Search Engine" podcast (in English)[0]. Apparently a lot of the people doing the actual scamming are human trafficked and being held in compounds against their will. [0] https://www.searchengine.show/whos-behind-these-scammy-text-...

From what I understand, a number of them are Chinese nationals. I suspect that taking Chinese slaves might not be a great idea. China tends to carry a big stick; especially in that region.

Wouldn't surprise me, if the DOJ had some "under-the-table" help from Chinese sources, but not in any way that anyone can prove.

If you don't want to sign up for a podcast, John Oliver did a fairly decent bit about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPpl2ISKTg

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

#232

Post by parthdesai »

timtom123 wrote: post #217
nomilk wrote: post #206

Seems organised crime is taking advantage of less-policed (or lawless) regions in Cambodia and Burma. The spectre of a similar scam has resulted in lower Chinese tourism to Thailand. Basically Chinese (among other nationalities) tourists were led from the airport by fake immigration staff, put into cars and driven to Burma and forced to work 18 hour days in scam call centers. A chilling but extremely worthwhile read.…

Spent significant time in Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand. Cambodia is a sad country full of desperate people. "less-policed" is the entire country. ~50 years since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide . Vietnam was by far my favorite of the three and the contrast between the three countries is stark.

> Spent significant time in Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand. Cambodia is a sad country full of desperate people.

Probably should also include which country is responsible for the current condition of the country.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1175241-once-you-ve-been-to...

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

#233

Post by khuey »

rags2riches wrote: post #106
Wingman4l7 wrote: post #13

Long overdue. At some point, these scam operations are so large that they have to be operating with tacit approval of their host countries, who have been given no incentive to stop the virtual cold war against the personal finances of foreign citizenry that is bringing in millions of dollars into their economy.

This makes me think of the Barbary Wars where piracy out of the Barbary states was a huge issue. There's also the connection with the slave trade then and the human trafficking for the scam centers now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Wars

Makes me imagine a buddy cop comedy but it's the US and China teaming up to deal with the scammers in Burma.

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

#234

Post by idiotsecant »

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…

The difference between 15 billion and 2.24 trillion is pretty much 2.24 trillion. I'm not sure there is a definition of the word where this is true .

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

#235

Post by ctxc »

parthdesai wrote: post #232
timtom123 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spent significant time in Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand. Cambodia is a sad country full of desperate people. "less-policed" is the entire country. ~50 years since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide . Vietnam was by far my favorite of the three and the contrast between the three countries is stark.

> Spent significant time in Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand. Cambodia is a sad country full of desperate people. Probably should also include which country is responsible for the current condition of the country. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1175241-once-you-ve-been-to...

Content: "Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević."

I had to read up, and...my goodness.

Apparently the US bombed a neutral Cambodia secretly to incite Vietnam's neighboring countries and put pressure on them, killing 30k to 150k civilians. This caused unrest, and gave way to Khmer Rouge to sieze power, using "defense against the US" as propoganda.

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

#236

Post by sidewndr46 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #37
sidewndr46 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Ars Technica: "Adding further mystery, it’s unknown how federal officials managed to obtain the cryptographic keys required to seize the funds from Zhi." My assumption is that at this point they just have orders from a judge allowing them to do it and they will find the means later.

Allowing them to do what? The feds are saying they already have the keys, so either they are lying, or they already had the means to get the keys. Which would be the juicy part of the story.

There exist a number of possibilities, all of which are equally likely

1. they are lying. The most obvious one. It's legal and is expected that law enforcement lie in the United States.

2. defendant was so dumb he had the funds in a crypto exchange account

3. Law enforcement has no idea what keys or crypto is. Also likely, law enforcement in the US is not required to be competent.

4. defendant was so dumb he landed on a flight in the US. This would be exceptionally stupid

5. The US military or the intelligence community either coerced the keys out of him or just beat the keys out of him. There are no jurisdictional issues with this approach. From what I understand this guy isn't very popular in any country, so few countries would care. Even fewer would want to publicly discuss how their sovereignty was violated

6. A random member of the criminal organization had access to most but not all of the keys. He showed up at a US embassy and said "well I did lots of bad stuff. I'd like to disappear now & not at a location named Guantanmo! How about we cut a deal"

My personal bet is on #3. It's effectively impossible for anyone to prove they don't have the keys. The only person who could do that would the defendant, who has no interest in doing so.

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

#237

Post by EvanAnderson »

nomilk wrote: post #206

Seems organised crime is taking advantage of less-policed (or lawless) regions in Cambodia and Burma. The spectre of a similar scam has resulted in lower Chinese tourism to Thailand. Basically Chinese (among other nationalities) tourists were led from the airport by fake immigration staff, put into cars and driven to Burma and forced to work 18 hour days in scam call centers. A chilling but extremely worthwhile read.…

I got a lot less snarky in my responses to scam text messages when I learned about the forced labor aspect. I just block the sender and go on, versus trying to bait them and waste their time.

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

#238

Post by sangel21 »

nomilk wrote: post #206

Seems organised crime is taking advantage of less-policed (or lawless) regions in Cambodia and Burma. The spectre of a similar scam has resulted in lower Chinese tourism to Thailand. Basically Chinese (among other nationalities) tourists were led from the airport by fake immigration staff, put into cars and driven to Burma and forced to work 18 hour days in scam call centers. A chilling but extremely worthwhile read.…

Were? they still are. It's not even a small amount there are thousands of people at these centers.

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

#239

Post by bugbuddy »

timtom123 wrote: post #217
nomilk wrote: post #206

Seems organised crime is taking advantage of less-policed (or lawless) regions in Cambodia and Burma. The spectre of a similar scam has resulted in lower Chinese tourism to Thailand. Basically Chinese (among other nationalities) tourists were led from the airport by fake immigration staff, put into cars and driven to Burma and forced to work 18 hour days in scam call centers. A chilling but extremely worthwhile read.…

Spent significant time in Vietnam & Cambodia & Thailand. Cambodia is a sad country full of desperate people. "less-policed" is the entire country. ~50 years since https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide . Vietnam was by far my favorite of the three and the contrast between the three countries is stark.

[flagged]

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

#240

Post by mothballed »

boredumb wrote: post #224
boc wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®" https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertari...

There is a small sense of irony reading the first 3 sentences before the paywall pops up and stops me from reading it entirely.

We basically have that in the US except the government has a monopoly on the police force. The libertarian police corp would be infinitely better as at least there would be competition for police services.
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