A crime that won’t pay? Five people were indicted in Paris yesterday for stealing several non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including Bored Apes. This is proof that the police are becoming more and more reactive to these new types of thefts?
In Paris, 5 individuals arrested for theft of NFTs
The prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that the five individuals would have carried out these thefts between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. It was phishing: they would have made the victims believe that they could animate their profile pictures, thus recovering the information allowing them to steal non-fungible tokens.
Several collections were targeted, but unsurprisingly the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) made the most money. A coin worth close to one million dollars was reportedly stolen. In total, five victims were identified by law enforcement, one of whom was reportedly robbed of 3 NFTs. The total value of the fraud is estimated at $2.5 million.
The suspects were reportedly born between 1998 and 2003 and reside in Paris, Caen and Tours respectively. The parents of one of them were also taken into custody and then released without charge, according to the prosecutor’s office. Two of them are said to have been in charge of the fake website and marketing, and the other three are said to have promoted the fake services offered.
Twitter user behind the investigation
According to Christophe Durand, the person in charge of the procedure, it was a Twitter user who initially investigated on his own. He would have reported the case to the police, who would have verified his information in order to proceed with the examination of the accused persons
NEW ARTICLE LIVE: Tracking down French phishing scammers that’ve stolen millionshttps://t.co/BHBHBGGobH
– ZachXBT (@zachxbt) August 8, 2022
A computer science school that one of the suspects is believed to be a member of had reacted to the news, explaining that it had passed the report on to its staff:
Thank you for the report, I am passing it on to our teaching and administrative teams. I also invite you to consult your rights and approach the authorities at https://t.co/WXwKhgRstn .
– 42 (@42born2code) August 9, 2022
Law enforcement agencies train on blockchain
The investigation was opened by the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 23 August by the Central Office for Combating Crime Linked to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC). In France, as elsewhere, law enforcement agencies have had to train themselves in these new technologies in order to better track criminals.
As we explained in our interview with Major Erwan Bouliou, police forces are beginning to have specific training for this type of crime. The NFTs sector in particular is relatively new, so education on the subject is crucial to prosecuting criminals.
