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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

#371

Post by anticodon »

SXX wrote: post #256
anticodon wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cambodia is a small country with no natural resources of any kind. Even to grow rice you need diesel for tractors and fertilizers that are produced from natural gas using energy (which Cambodia lacks). There's very few opportunities for a small country without resources.

And to grow rice you need to somehow get rid of US bombs that majority of Cambodia soil is very well fertilized with. Between 1965 and 1973 US dropped 2,756,941 tones of bombs on 113,717 sites in Cambidia. Thats more bombs than all allies together used in all of World War II. Tens of people still getting killed by them every year. https://gsp.yale.edu/sites/default/files/walrus_cambodiabomb...

Those are democratic bombs bringing freedom. Can't be a bad thing.

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

#372

Post by jbstack »

georgemcbay wrote: post #358
jbstack wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't pay your debts or taxes then even items that you own and which are in your possession can be taken from you, thanks to the rule of law. Conversely, if someone comes along and takes it from you without legal justification, the rule of law allows you to claim it back. That same rule of law ensures that you are entitled to the gold you own that isn't in your possession. Drawing the line at possession is arb…

Sure, but my point is that quite a few people argue that owning crypto (or gold, which is why I also brought that up) protects you in the situation where societal structure fails, and they just obviously don't.

Yes, and I agree with that point. I just think you haven't extended it to its natural conclusion which is that if societal structure fails, even physical possession of things you own isn't going to help you if you have gangs of criminals rioting and looting. Consider for example what happened in Haiti in 2018+.

What matters is rule of law, not possession. If you have strong rule of law, you have some protection for whatever you own, possessed or not. If you have zero rule of law, you have no protection for any of it.

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

#373

Post by jacknews »

tooltalk wrote: post #355
jacknews wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Militarily you are right, but remember war is politics by other means. Thailand's Thaksin is now in jail and his daughter, basically his avatar, has been removed from government. Mission accomplished. And to get a sense of how powerful this scam industry is in the country, the latest news is of a young Korean murdered after being kidnapped by a scam gang. Korea has responded forcefully, calling out the danger, yet th…

>> that they are just as guilty of human-trafficking Cambodian brides, that some Koreans who were 'rescued' from a scam center don't actually want to go home They don't want to go home because they fear the Chinese criminal gangs would follow them home in South Korea where they were recruited in the first place by Korean-speaking Chinese for debts they accrued while they were held captive. Others also fear they could…

Yes of course, but this claim is a response to Korea's claim that they are 'missing', presumed trafficked to scam compounds.

Cambodia is claiming they are 'detained' by immigration, and refuse to leave, making it sound like the Koreans themselves are the problem, trying to deflect from the real issue.

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

#374

Post by chrz »

ergocoder wrote: post #350
jjangkke wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point its accurate to say the Cambodian leadership have completely been subjugated through corruption and that they are no longer running the country but Chinese OCGs who are affiliated with CCP and that they are probably influencing it at a state level on all matters. We are seeing similar attempts in other Southeast Asian countries and even Korea but Cambodia seems like an outlier. It's sad that not enough…

People love to hate US being the world police. For a small developing country, US is a godsend.

2.7m tones of bombs were a godsend too

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

#375

Post by 3abiton »

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.…

15B lost, but it gave us good memes. Still, unbelievable amount.

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

#376

Post by lazide »

lmm wrote: post #362
lazide wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they bought Bitcoin and gave it to the scammer, and that Bitcoin is even worth more now, so that’s the ‘most fair’ recompense. After all, if someone stole $1k of gold from someone a decade ago, is giving them (now deflated) $1k USD fair, or is giving them the same physical amount (now worth) $3k in gold fairer? Even if they bought the gold because the scammer asked them too. The ‘fair enough’ treatment would…

> After all, if someone stole $1k of gold from someone a decade ago, is giving them (now deflated) $1k USD fair, or is giving them the same physical amount (now worth) $3k in gold fairer? Even if they bought the gold because the scammer asked them too. I think that's an important difference. The fair thing is to "make them whole", to restore them to as if they'd never met the scammer. If they had a stash of gold that…

$50k USD now is != $50k USD at the time of the scam. And that isn’t even considering time value of money, but just baseline inflation!

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

#377

Post by Muromec »

pixl97 wrote: post #294
Muromec wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you are FBI of course

I mean, I don't disagree, but there are far more government agencies around the world that will beat you with a wrench first.

If you are lucky, then the three letters are from Latin alphabet, but you never know

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

#378

Post by codedokode »

gosub100 wrote: post #193
kevinak wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, but it's not so hard that you can't figure it out to keep your 15 billion safe.

There is no honor among pig butchers.

There is no honor among people in general.

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

#380

Post by acdha »

jwpapi wrote: post #364

How can you scam 15B and not be smart enough to make your btc unaccessible ?

It’s not about “smart” as much as perfect execution. Bitcoin’s design is very brittle, so he had to do everything perfectly every time but they only needed a single opening. People try various things to split up wallets but those are complicated for a criminal who doesn’t have many people they trust and targeted attacks by nation-state level adversaries are extremely hard to stop (e.g. for an operation of this level, burning a few million on a zero day isn’t a very big chunk of the budget).
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