Security News > 2020 > September > Two Russians Charged in $17M Cryptocurrency Phishing Spree

U.S. authorities today announced criminal charges and financial sanctions against two Russian men accused of stealing nearly $17 million worth of virtual currencies in a series of phishing attacks throughout 2017 and 2018 that spoofed websites for some of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges.

Prosecutors say the men then laundered the stolen funds through an array of intermediary cryptocurrency accounts - including compromised and fictitiously created accounts - on the targeted cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

The two are alleged to have artificially inflated the value of their ill-gotten gains by engaging in cryptocurrency price manipulation using some of the stolen funds.

The Treasury's action today lists several of the cryptocurrency accounts thought to have been used by the defendants.

Searching on some of those accounts at various cryptocurrency transaction tracking sites points to a number of phishing victims.

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https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/09/two-russians-charged-in-17m-cryptocurrency-phishing-spree/