Bitcoin News and Finance
Europol Cracks Down on Vitae Belgian Ponzi Scheme, Recovers €1.5 Million in Crypto Skip to main content

Europol Cracks Down on Vitae Belgian Ponzi Scheme, Recovers €1.5 Million in Crypto

europol

Europol, the EU law agency, cracked down on Vitae, a Belgian Ponzi scheme. Europol raided 17 locations related to the website, promoted as a social media site with its own cryptocurrency. The company operated in Switzerland under the name VITAE AG. Law enforcement officials recovered €1.1 million in cash and €1.5 million in cryptocurrency during this action.

Europol Shuts Vitae Down

Europol took action against a group of individuals that used the Vitae platform to run an alleged Ponzi scheme. The European law enforcement agency coordinated the actions with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police under the jurisdiction of the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office to organize a joint criminal investigation. This joint force raided 17 houses related to the case, mainly in Antwerp, West Flanders, and Limburg. According to reports, Swiss police conducted other searches.

Five people were arrested for their alleged participation in the Vitae scheme. Europol also closed the Vitae website and replaced it with a warning about the content of the site, now considered illegal according to Belgian legislation. The investigation was secret and few people knew about the raids, so the alleged criminals could not escape the action.

Vitae acted as a privacy-oriented social network with its own cryptocurrency token. The site was advertised as an earning platform for top posters, that would earn vitae token with quality content. The site had over 200,000 users. As a consequence of the action, the price of the Vitae token plummeted.

A Focus on the Digital Frontier

Europol and its associated agencies have expressed their worries about digital crimes and their consequences. In a newly emitted report titled The Cyber Blue Line, the organism states their new focus lies in cyberspace. The report states:

The criminal abuse of encryption, an essential element of our digitalized democracies, and other privacy-enhancing technologies and designs have created an imbalance between privacy, security, and safety.

Cryptocurrency is said to be one of the many tools that cybercriminals use in their attempts to be undetected by police forces. Currently, hackers responsible for ransomware attacks use bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as payments. This happened in the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack case last month. The report anticipates these kinds of cyberattacks will keep happening in the future.

Europol and other police organizations in the world are now turning their eyes to encryption and cryptocurrencies. As a consequence, regulators will also focus on these subjects in the future.

What do you think about Vitae’s Europol crackdown? Tell us in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory