According to a local newspaper, the Specialized Police Station for the Repression of Cybercrime in the state of Tocantins (north of Brazil) stopped the operations of a group of seven cybercriminals, who were ordered to arrest in at least two states of the country.
The information, which was published on July 9, indicates that the amount of money that the authorities managed to recover was about 710 thousand reais, an approximate of 180 thousand dollars which translates into the sum of 27 BTC. Additionally, it was possible to detect that the cybercriminals possessed the data of some 394 thousand people, thanks to an intelligence work that managed to reproduce the software used by the hackers and access their database.
The seizure was the product of an investigation initiated by the police in May. It was determined that the mode of operation of the hackers was to use phishing links. In addition, cybercriminals developed malicious programs that penetrated vulnerable systems with Internet connection, to steal the money.
Currently the assets of those involved, including two vehicles and some real estate, are seized and their accounts disabled.
Almost 300 thousand dollars, or one million reals, it is estimated that it was the total sum drawn by the cybercriminals thanks to the system used to steal banking data. Of this total, some 2.5 million dollars were converted into cryptocurrencies by thieves. In the same way, it was discovered that the victims were from some 23 states of the country.
Additionally, the authorities managed to find the key to the portfolio of one of those involved. This was possible due to the fact that among his personal files there was a physical backup of the password. Thanks to this, some 36 transactions were found for a total of 27 bitcoins, which were negotiated by the police and transferred to a judicial account.
These cybercriminals operated in Brazil, a nation that increased its cryptocurrency exchange volume by 21% in the LocalBitcoins portal in June, and positioned itself as one of the countries in the region that, together with Venezuela and Argentina, leads the region. list of largest exchanges of bitcoins; hence, the interest of the authorities to investigate operations involving cryptocurrencies is increasing.