It is becoming easier to locate crypto criminals according to various law enforcement agencies.
Crypto Crime Is Easier to Find, Now
Not long ago, a man in California was the victim of a romance scam and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, Erin West – a deputy district attorney that heads the high technology crimes unit in Santa Clara County – was able to track and freeze the money before it was lost. She says that while the scammer likely lives in a whole separate country and wont’ be arrested, she was able to keep the money from being used by someone that hadn’t earned it.
In an interview, she stated:
Our bread and butter these days really are tracing cryptocurrency and trying to seize it and trying to get there faster than the bad guys are moving it somewhere where we can’t grab it.
West is just one of several law enforcement agents to have embraced a string of digital tools designed to end the strain of crypto crime we have seen in recent years. It’s an ugly situation that has seemingly gotten worse with time, but the more agents can do their part in embracing the right technology and doing what they can to ensure crypto crime ceases, the less prominent this is likely to be.
Elizabeth Roper – chief of cybercrime and ID theft in the New York County district attorney’s office – explained in a statement that crypto crime is a constant issue her office is stuck dealing with. She also says the issue has become so commonplace that it’s nearly impossible for things to be simply left in the hands of the federal government.
She commented:
There’s just so much of it that it’s just not realistic to think that the federal government and federal law enforcement is going to be able to address every threat and handle every case, so it is important for locals to develop competency in these areas.
Roper says that the same problem West is dealing with she is also having to work around. That’s the issue of being able to freeze money before it’s stolen, but it’s extremely rare that someone is punished for their role in a crypto scam.
She stated:
It is interesting, because you start to think about what it means to have a successful investigation, what accomplishes the most, and what’s the best use of our resources. I think we’re going to see it more frequently with these assets than we have in the past.
So Many Cases!
Ben Suver – director of law enforcement initiatives for the Ohio Department of Public Safety – says:
We have a number of agencies that just don’t have this technology and know-how, and so although it’s narcotics, they’re calling us and telling us about these different scams where elderly folks are being ordered to buy cryptocurrency.