FBI seizes 9 cryptocurrency exchange websites supporting cyber criminals and ransomware spread

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FBI officials have released an official statement that they have seized the servers operating in United States, Ukraine and France linked to about 9 cryptocurrency exchange websites that supported cyber criminals in their actions by indulging in money laundering and exchange of fiat currency in crypto.

The list of seized websites includes-

1.     24xbtc.com

2.     100btc.pro

3.     Pridechange.com

4.     101crypta.com

5.     Uxbtc.com

6.     Trust-exchange.org

7.     Bitcoin24.exchange

8.     Paybtc.pro

9.     Owl.gold

Sources reporting to our cybersecurity insiders state that the operation was carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the help of its Virtual Currency Response Team, le-gal prosecutors of European nations and America and the National Police of Ukraine. And the legal action was taken in accordance with a seizure warrant 18 U.S.C 1960 and 18 U.S.C 1956 issued by the US District Court of Michigan.

The law enforcement discovered in its criminal investigation and after analysis that these web-sites were helping criminals convert the BTC into hard to track digital currencies sources and leading to wallets based in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Where these currencies are of-ten invested in betting games like Poker and converted to local currencies that are later diverted to bank accounts of internationally recognized banks.

As these nations do not curtail earnings from criminal activities, funds transferred from such nations to bank accounts of international banks are often shown a blind eye by law enforce-ments across the world. Some banks having branches in these nations do not comply with any of the central banking units and do not collect customer details, that is mandatory for financial institutions operating in many of the developed and developing nations.

Some crime analysts suggest the ban of cryptocurrency to curb cyber-crime such as ransom-ware spread. But in practical it might not be possible as the dark web is filled with many such digi currencies that are hard to track and have very less life span over digital existence.

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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