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Hong Kong police arrest 27 in $46m deepfake crypto romance scam

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Hong Kong police have dismantled a deepfake romance scam that swindled men out of $46 million through fake cryptocurrency investments.

According to a local report, law enforcement in Hong Kong cracked down on a multinational crypto romance scam, which targeted victims from Hong Kong, Singapore, mainland China, and other regions, and was run by a fraud syndicate using advanced deepfake technology. 

Police arrested 27 people, including university graduates and suspected Sun Yee On triad members, who helped run the scheme and set up fake trading platforms that tricked victims into investing in bogus cryptocurrency investments.

Romance scams, sometimes called pig butchering scams, involve scammers posing as love interests to gain someone’s trust. They eventually convince their victims to invest in fake cryptocurrency investments promising lucrative returns, then vanish with the money.

The inner workings of the scam

The syndicate used AI-generated photos of attractive women to initiate online romantic relationships with unsuspecting men. The victims were later persuaded to invest in what they believed to be legitimate cryptocurrency platforms, only to find out later that they could not withdraw any funds.

Senior Superintendent Fang Chi-kin, who heads the New Territories South regional crime unit, said that the syndicate’s victims were tricked even during video calls, as deepfake technology was used to replace the scammers’ appearances and voices with those of attractive women.

Victims were then persuaded into making investments in cryptocurrency via the fake trading platforms and were even shown fake transaction records that claimed to show profits on their investments.

“They even discussed future plans with the victims, creating a false sense of happiness to encourage them to continue investing,” Fang added.

The fraudsters divided their operations into various roles, including scam operations, technical support, and accounting, police said. Recruits, often university graduates, were hired to manage English-speaking or Mandarin-speaking victims and were given training manuals outlining how to build trust with victims, particularly in the area of investment.

Per the report, each fraudster involved in the syndicate could earn tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars per month, with some earning over HK$100,000. The police are continuing investigations and have not ruled out further arrests.

The scammers had been operating since October 2023 and managed to defraud victims out of HK$360 million (roughly $46 million.)

Romance scams on the rise

Cryptocurrency scammers are getting more sophisticated with their techniques, and romance scams are just one of their tactics. The rise of AI is adding to the challenge, helping scammers pull off more convincing schemes.

Over the years, agencies like the United States Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have warned of the rise in romance scams, particularly those involving cryptocurrency. 

A study led by University of Texas finance professor John Griffin revealed that romance scams caused over $75 billion in losses from January 2020 to February 2024, with many of the scammers operating out of Southeast Asia. In a recent case, a U.S. citizen filed a lawsuit after losing $2.1 million in Bitcoin to one of these pig butchering scams run by a crime syndicate in the region.

Meanwhile, in April, the Virtual Currency Unit within the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office uncovered a similar scheme targeting victims all across the U.S.



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Bitcoin

Metaplanet makes largest Bitcoin bet, acquires nearly 620 BTC

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Tokyo-listed Metaplanet has purchased another 9.5 billion yen ($60.6 million) worth of Bitcoin, pushing its holdings to 1,761.98 BTC.

Metaplanet, a publicly traded Japanese company, has acquired 619.7 Bitcoin as part of its crypto treasury strategy, paying an average of 15,330,073 yen per (BTC), with a total investment of 9.5 billion yen.

According to the company’s latest financial disclosure, Metaplanet’s total Bitcoin holdings now stand at 1,761.98 BTC, with an average purchase price of 11,846,002 yen (~$75,628) per Bitcoin. The company has spent 20.872 billion yen in total on Bitcoin acquisitions, the document reads.

The latest purchase is the largest so far for the Tokyo-headquartered company and comes just days after Metaplanet issued its 5th Series of Ordinary Bonds via private placement with EVO FUND, raising 5 billion yen (approximately $32 million).

The proceeds from this issuance, as disclosed earlier, were allocated specifically for purchasing Bitcoin. These bonds, set to mature in June 2025, carry no interest and allow for early redemption under specific conditions.

Metaplanet buys dip

The company also shared updates on its BTC Yield, a metric used to measure the growth of Bitcoin holdings relative to fully diluted shares. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 23, Metaplanet’s BTC Yield surged to 309.82%, up from 41.7% in the previous quarter.

Bitcoin itself has seen strong performance this year, climbing 120% and outperforming assets like the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 indices. However, it has recently pulled back from its all-time high of $108,427, trading at $97,000 after the Federal Reserve indicated only two interest rate cuts in 2025.

Despite the retreat, on-chain metrics indicate that Bitcoin is still undervalued based on its Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV-Z) score, which stands at 2.84 — below the threshold of 3.7 that historically signals an asset is overvalued.



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Blockchain

Horizen spikes 60% to lead gainers as BTC, ETH bounce

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Horizen price spiked more than 60% in 24 hours as the cryptocurrency market looked to recover from a massive dump that saw top altcoins crash to key support levels.

On Dec. 20, as Bitcoin (BTC) traded to above $97k and Ethereum (ETH) bulls pushed above $3,400, the price of Horizen (ZEN) surged to highs of $26.34. The cryptocurrency, which rallied sharply following a recent Grayscale Investments announcement, reached a multi-year high and ranked among the top gainers in the 500 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.

ZEN traded at lows of $14.55 on Dec. 19. However, despite the broader crypto crash and the staggering $1.4 billion liquidations, the altcoin’s price hovered above $26 in early trading during the U.S. trading session.

According to crypto.news price data, Horizen recorded a 24-hour trading volume of over $397 million, with its market cap exceeding $407 million. These metrics reflected increases of 294% and 62%, respectively, in the past 24 hours. While ZEN has surged nearly 200% over the past month, its current levels are still more than 84% below the all-time high of $168 reached in May 2021.

If the broader crypto market continues to rebound, ZEN bulls may aim for March 2022 highs near $50.

The positive momentum has benefited from Grayscale opening of the Grayscale ZEN Trust to qualified investors. Prices of the altcoin rose as the digital asset manager unveiled the fund to offer exposure to Horizen for qualified investors.

Earlier this month, Horizen’s native token underwent its final halving, which came as the project geared for a key change in its tokenomics. ZEN will not see any further halvings as the new network mechanism enables a declining emission rate.

That’s because Horizen, is shifting from the proof of work mining model that mirrored Bitcoin’s halving cycle to a new proof of stake mechanism in 2025. Horizen’s last halving occurred on Dec. 12, 2024.

New tokenomics for Horizen will come into effect in the first half of 2025.



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Binance

Binance Futures updates leverage and margin tiers for multiple USDⓈ-M perpetual contracts

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Binance’s updated leverage and margin tiers offer improved trading options for select trading pairs, bringing both potential rewards and risks for crypto traders.

The leverage and margin levels for USDⓈ-M perpetual contracts, including DAR, ME, CAKE, IOTA, LPT, ONE, and ZEN, will be updated by Binance Futures today, with effect from 08:15 UTC on Dec. 19, 2024.

USDⓈ-M stands for USD-Margined Futures, a type of cryptocurrency futures contract offered on platforms like Binance. It refers to stablecoins such as USDT (Tether) or BUSD (BUSD), which are pegged to the US dollar. These contracts are settled in these stablecoins, rather than traditional fiat currency or the underlying crypto asset.

Depending on the contract and position size, the revised leverage tiers will vary from 1x to 75x, enabling traders to fully benefit from their leveraged positions in the crypto market.

Leveraged positions of traders will be impacted by the new maintenance margin rates, which range from 1.00% to 50.00%.

Margin is the total amount of collateral needed to open and sustain a trading position, whereas leverage is the borrowing of funds to increase the size of a position. The possible return increases with leverage, but the chance of loss also goes up.

By adjusting the margin and leverage tiers, Binance Futures continues to give traders more choices to control risk and profit from volatile crypto market movements.

Traders must keep themselves updated with Binance Future trading rules and exercise risk management, particularly when working with high-leverage instruments over several contracts and margin holdings.



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