according to the materials from the site - Defiliban
Ronald Spector, a 23-year-old teenager from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, has been charged with orchestrating a phishing scheme that, by deceiving nearly 100 Coinbase users, led to the theft of 16 million dollars. The fraudulent activities took place between April 2023 and December 2024.
Specter allegedly posed as a representative of Coinbase. He contacted victims via phone or text messages, often using bots for alerts, and falsely informed them that their assets were at risk from hackers. He tricked these individuals into transferring their funds to wallets controlled by him using secret phrases.
The stolen cryptocurrency was laundered in various ways, including exchanges, mixing services, gambling sites, and physical cash-outs such as gift cards. Authorities confiscated about $105,000 in cash and $400,000 in crypto assets, while efforts to recover more continue under Operation "Fish Net."
The investigation linked the home IP address of "Specter" with the wallets of victims. Blockchain analysis and digital forensic examination further confirmed his involvement in this scheme. Specter had previously played no role in the cryptocurrency industry, conducting operations mainly from his apartment.
Specter recruited accomplices online and often boasted about his exploits on platforms like Telegram, where he operated under the alias @lolimfeelingevil in the "Enemies of Blockchain" channel. He also bragged on Discord about the scale of his thefts and gambling losses, claiming a loss of $6 million from gambling.
Recovered telephone records revealed attempts to cover tracks, including disposing of a hardware wallet after fraud allegations. Specter’s lawyer, Todd Spodek, claimed that all actions were initiated by the user and that his client did not directly move individuals' cryptocurrency.
Victims of this fraud lost significant cryptocurrency assets, including large amounts from individuals in California and Virginia. One incident, which occurred in October 2024 with a California resident, resulted in a loss of $6 million. It is reported that laundering these funds involved exchanging them for other cryptocurrencies. No tokens, managed assets, or protocols were directly affected, aside from the theft of user wallets.
Specter was charged with 31 counts, including grand theft and money laundering with a bail set at $500,000. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez noted the associated fraud, explaining that victims were unaware that the wallets to which they transferred funds were created by Specter, who knew their seed phrases and thus gained access to their assets.
Although there was no direct industry impact on funding or institutional involvement noted, this case highlights ongoing security issues in the cryptocurrency space. Previous incidents, such as SEC cases related to the depletion of the Game Coin liquidity pool and various crypto scams, underscore the vulnerabilities faced by individual investors.
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