In China, Beijing police recently uncovered a series of cases involving the illegal sale of citizen information using cryptocurrency, worth over $282 million. According to the statement, more than ten virtual wallets were used for these illegal transactions.
The cases in question cover 15 regions and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang.
According to the statement made by Chinese authorities, these cases are notable for their secret and diverse criminal methods and are also a “serial incident” of high complexity, ranging from deep web transactions to illegal currency transactions.
Beijing police had previously received tips that someone was using the “dark web” and cryptocurrency to transfer information and make virtual money transactions, especially illegally selling various private information of Chinese citizens.
Liang Fei, a case officer from the Economic Investigation Department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, explained that some people created multiple groups using overseas chat software and openly sold citizens' personal information such as ID numbers, mobile phone numbers, and home addresses in the groups.
Liang Fei said, “There are hundreds of members in the information selling group, and the personal information of hundreds of millions of citizens has been sold in the group. The transaction method is strictly limited to cryptocurrencies.”
*This is not investment advice.