Russian authorities have detained a group of cybercriminals that are said to have sold a large amount of counterfeit money on the dark web (underground network) in exchange for cryptocurrencies.
According to an April 7 report from primexbt news:
Offenders have successfully sold more than one million Rubles of counterfeit money, worth about $13 million at the time of issue.
Crime rages on Russia's largest black market
According to a report by the Interior Ministry, the intruders circulated counterfeit money through a darknet shop of Russia's largest black market, Hydra. The store is operated under the name “Bank of Russia”, an alternative title for the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. According to the authorities, the counterfeit money from this shop is of "high quality".
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Counterfeit money has been exchanged for cryptocurrency
This gang has been operating for about a year, trading fake rubles in exchange for "virtual currency only". First discovered in the Republic of Tatarstan, the amount of counterfeit money is believed to have spread to several regions of Russia. According to this report, lots of coins have been sold for only 30% of their true value, even when exchanging in bulk (from $6,500 and up) the value is only about 10-15%.
The Russian Interior Ministry said this was the first fraud related to counterfeit money in the country. However, Russia is not the first country facing crypto-related counterfeiting cases. In September 2019, the Portuguese police along with Europol (*) seized nearly $80,000 in capital from merchants who were selling counterfeit money in exchange for Bitcoin (BTC).
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