You know it’s black and you still buy it? Be wary of score arbitrage scams

As a new type of value storage and transfer tool, cryptocurrency has the characteristics of anonymous payment and cross-border transfer. Therefore, as encryption technology is adopted by all walks of life, it appears more and more frequently in black and gray industry activity scenarios, including fraud and theft. , network attacks, etc. Among them, stablecoins are particularly favored by black and gray industry practitioners because their value is anchored to the legal currency of the real world. This type of stablecoin (mainly USDT) is vividly called "black U" by the industry.

As countries master the ability to track encrypted funds and improve corresponding laws and regulations, the number of cases of law enforcement agencies attacking entities behind link addresses based on encrypted fund analysis has also increased. Therefore, most industry organizations and practitioners often have Black U avoids it for fear of being investigated for anti-money laundering. However, there are still some speculators who despise laws and regulations and actively participate in black U cleaning, resulting in themselves being deceived or punished by law.

Below, Bitrace will use a real incident as a case to expose a certain "black U arbitrage scam".

Earn 2k in 5 minutes simply and crudely?

Recently, a victim submitted a report to Bitrace, saying that he saw a video promoting black U arbitrage on the Internet and entered the corresponding website to participate in online earning, but was defrauded of funds that could not be redeemed.

It is understood that the website claims to be an order-taking platform for laundering USDT funds involved in the case. It allows users to exchange "clean U" for "black U" at an "exchange rate" of 1:1.1~1.45. The user collects the black U and then transfers it to other places. The platform sells it, and the excess part is the income from the user's "running points".

The victim first transferred 5 USDT to the designated address with the mentality of giving it a try, and received a refund of 5.5 USDT. Then he transferred 207 USDT and received a refund of 269 USDT. Then he transferred 1,000 USDT but did not receive the refund. . During the process of contacting the platform, the customer service refused to return the money on the excuse of "inconsistent deposit and withdrawal IPs and inconsistent deposit and withdrawal hash values" and asked him to place another order, and both orders would be returned at the same time. At this moment, the victim realized that he had been deceived.

It is not difficult to see that this is a common routine in the pig-killing market. Small amounts will be returned, but large amounts will not be returned. **The scammer first builds trust through successful transactions of small amounts, making the victim mistakenly believe that the real profit margin can be obtained, and then leads him step by step into the trap. After the victim recharges a large amount, he can run away with the money. **

According to the victim’s information, such promotional videos for black online earning can be seen everywhere on a certain video website. Videos with words such as “gray production, running scores” in the title have a high number of views. It is not difficult to see that the high number of views is high. The temptation of profits makes some people eager to move.

Bitrace on-chain data tracking

According to the relevant address provided by the victim in this case, Bitrace conducted on-chain fund tracking. The basic situation is as follows:

• So far, the fraud gang has illegally obtained more than 870,000 USDT through the same method. 784 independent addresses transferred USDT to fraudulent addresses, but only 437 addresses received the money back. Nearly half of the participants did not succeed in "arbitrage" for the first time. This means that "big smart" behavior like shedding wool is difficult to achieve;
• The fraud gang’s address handling fees come from online gambling platforms. This is a common behavior of many black and gray industry gangs. Online gambling platforms generally lack compliance mechanisms, resulting in a large amount of funds involved in the case entering and exiting their business addresses, forming a de facto "currency mixing platform";
• Fraudulent gangs will immediately transfer and clean the funds after obtaining them. At present, it seems that centralized trading platforms are their preferred place to sell stolen goods.

Currently, Bitrace has directed the victim to report the crime to the local police station.

There are risks involved in participating in black U moves.

Bitrace would like to remind you that many brick-and-mortar arbitrage scams under the banner of high returns are actually pig-killing scams. In addition, participating in benchmarking activities often faces the risk of the platform running away and losing principal. Finally, and most importantly, knowingly Even though he is a gangster, he still voluntarily participates in fund laundering and may face jail time.

Take the "First Instance Criminal Judgment of the Crime of Helping Information Network Criminal Activities" issued on April 11, 2022 as an example. For the purpose of making profits, the defendant Man knew that others were using information networks to commit crimes, but still used his bank card to provide payment and settlement assistance to others. The settlement amount amounted to more than 1.32 million yuan. The circumstances were serious. His behavior had violated national criminal laws and constituted assistance. Crime of information network criminal activities. The People's Court of Mayang Miao Autonomous County, Hunan Province sentenced him to six months in prison and fined him RMB 10,000. The returned illegal income of RMB 3,000 was confiscated in accordance with the law and turned over to the state treasury.

Write at the end

As a traditional mature scam in the field of web3, the Black U Pig Killing Plate Scam accurately and effectively grasps the greed of human nature, and the victims are more widespread and the damage caused is greater. As an individual investor, there is nothing wrong with looking for speculative opportunities on various platforms and hoping to gain profits, but at the same time, you should also reasonably evaluate risks and actively understand relevant deception techniques, laws and regulations.