Teenager In The UK Commits Crypto Fraud Through Phishing, Incurring Losses Of IDR 42 Billion

JAKARTA - Cybercrime has increased during the pandemic and phishing has emerged as one of the most persistent problems law enforcement agencies around the world are trying to tackle. Cryptocurrency scams and ransomware attacks are also on the rise, with many cases coming to light in recent times.

A teenager in the UK has been convicted of setting up a phishing site and using Google Ads to defraud shoppers.

A new report from the UK now shows that serious cybercrime is not limited to violent criminals with the plethora of technological tools at their disposal. According to the report, a seventeen-year-old boy from the Lincolnshire region of England set up a fake website last year to collect credit card details from hundreds of victims.

His elaborate scam reportedly earned him a fortune that is now worth nearly $3 million. According to a statement released earlier this week by Lincolnshire Police, the teenager was arrested on August 14, 2020, in a money laundering and fraud investigation for fraud that occurred during April 9-16 of that year.

As part of their investigation, Lincolnshire police said they had seized "48 Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies" that they said was worth nearly $3 million at the current valuation.

In describing his modus operandi, the police said that the boy created a phishing website imitating a popular gift voucher site called 'Love2Shop' with the aim of stealing credit card information and gift voucher redemption codes from unsuspecting shoppers.

He then bought Google Ads to advertise the fake site, which meant it appeared higher than the real site in search results. The teenager is said to have collected a large amount of personal details through his elaborate scheme, including more than 12.000 credit card numbers and 197 Paypal account logins.

According to the report, the boy was able to get a voucher code worth £6.539 as long as the site was live. The voucher was later turned into a Love2Shop gift card, which the teenager then used to buy cryptocurrency to trick the police.

The site is said to have been active for only one week from April 9-16 last year. The site was taken down after Love2shop began investigating following customer complaints. During the police investigation, he admitted to charges of money laundering and 'fraud by false representation' but did not have to serve a prison sentence because of his age. Instead, he was sentenced earlier this week to a 12-month youth rehabilitation program.