Latest News: Chinese Crypto Scammers Arrested, Ledger Issues Warning on Desktop Application Malware

Million Dollar Chinese Crypto Scam Team Arrested

Chinese authorities have arrested the perpetrators of a 300 million yuan ($46 million) crypto scam. The suspects are said to have created a gambling-centered blockchain known as Hero Chain (HEC). The HEC team launched the project on an online platform on 15th January 2018 and proceeded to seek investments from unsuspecting individuals. The Hero Chain team successfully raised 40,000 Ether (ETH), an amount valued at over $6 million at current prices (but significantly more at that time).

Victims reported the case after the official website and WeChat group of the project were shut down. According to local authorities, 21 individuals are suspected to have been involved with the fraudulent scheme. So far, 15 have been arrested while 6 are on the run.

A task force was set up on 29th December 2018 to bring the suspects to book after the Zhuhui Public Security Bureau received several complaints from the public. The team constitutes criminal investigators, economic crime investigators, internet security experts, and police officers from four stations across the country.

The task force was able to recover $3 million of the victims' money. Unfortunately, the remaining funds had already been shared by the project team members and have not yet been tracked down.

Ledger Issues Warning on Desktop Application Malware

On 25th April, Ledger gave users of its hardware wallet information on recently detected malware.

Ledger's warning message via Twitter reads:

"WARNING: we’ve detected a malware that locally replaces the Ledger Live desktop application by a malicious one. Users of infected computers are asked to enter their 24-word recovery phrase after a fake update. Please refer to our security best practices."

According to the above tweet from Ledger, the malware replaces the Ledger Live desktop application and lures users into revealing their recovery phrases after a fake update. Ledger later clarified that the phishing attempt was targeted at Windows machines. The French hardware wallet manufacturer added that only a single instance of the attack had been detected.

In the same Twitter thread, Ledger referred worried users to a medium post on Ledger wallet best practices. According to Ledger, users' cryptocurrency will be safe if they stick to the best practices and never enter their recovery phrases on computers. Users were also advised to verify their transactions on their devices.

There are currently no confirmed cases of lost coins due to the phishing attempt.

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Originally posted on Crypto Insider : https://cryptoinsider.com/latest-news-chinese-crypto-scammers-arrested-ledger-issues-warning-on-desktop-application-malware/