Cryptocurrency lit up as a way to pay for contract killings. This was reported in the Investigative Committee of Russia.
Kill for bitcoin: killers began to take payment in cryptocurrency Russian killers began to accept payment in cryptocurrency for committing contract killings. This was told in an interview with TASS the head of Department on investigation of cybercrimes and crimes in the sphere of high technologies of the RF IC Konstantin Camarda. According to law enforcement, criminals use from 15 to 20 anonymous crypto-wallets to transfer and convert funds received for the murder of the victim. Hackers who use VPN services and various bitcoin mixers to disguise the identity of the recipient of funds help hide the traces of killers on the Internet.
“We investigate cases against professional attackers who are specialists in the field of IT technologies, who feel confident in the cyber environment, who carefully plan crimes and use all possible arsenal of means to maintain their anonymity and remain unpunished – from VPN programs to cryptocurrency. For example, in cases of contract killings, the use of one of the cryptocurrencies as a means of payment was established,” Komarda commented.
Note that cryptocurrencies are still a popular means of payment in the darknet, despite the tightening of regulation of the turnover of digital coins around the world. Not so long ago, a coalition of law enforcement agencies conducted a comprehensive operation to identify and detain drug traffickers working for cryptocurrency on the darknet. 179 suspects have been arrested and are awaiting a court decision. It is also not uncommon for cryptocurrencies to be used to commit crimes related to human trafficking. So, the P2P platform Paxful previously announced cooperation with the Cryptocurrency Consortium and sponsoring a number of events aimed at combating human trafficking around the world.
Cryptocurrencies are popular among drug traffickers Criminals still prefer to use cryptocurrencies in illegal activities. The main means of payment in the vast darknet remains Bitcoin (BTC). According to the data of the analytical company Crystal, in the first half of 2020, an increase in the value of transferred cryptocurrencies in dollar terms was recorded. And if in 2019 the total number of bitcoins rotating in the darknet was $384 million, but in 2020 this figure increased to $411 million. The growth was caused by an increase in the value of the cryptocurrency itself. Other popular payment methods in the darknet are: Monero (XMR), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Binance Coin (BNB), Ethereum (ETH) and others. Narcotic substances invariably remain a popular product. Moreover, almost 60% of the drug market of the darknet is still controlled by the Hydra Marketplace, which serves exclusively customers from Russia. Experts from Chainalysis claim that the darknet is becoming more sophisticated in security issues every day. Sellers are increasingly forcing their customers to use cryptocurrencies focused on anonymity, primarily Monero. The most popular product, invariably, are narcotic substances. Moreover, almost 60% of the drug market of the darknet is still controlled by the Hydra platform, which serves customers from Russia.
