Fraud Investigation Related to Cryptocurrency - Bitcoin - A Case Study

Abstract

Background: From the time immemorial there have been several types of crimes. With the advancement in science and technology, digital crimes have become very prominent. One among which is Bit-Coin crypto-currency frauds which are gaining momentum in the types of frauds encountered by law enforcement agencies. Bit-Coin is a growing form of digital crypto-currency that is created and held electronically that has no centralized control systems, that governs the transactions. It is the most secretive form of money transfer between two anonymous people all over the world. It is on a superficial layer used to purchase or sell goods electronically, similar to the conventional dollars that are traded digitally where individual ledgers are maintained by all the bit coin users to have access to the building block-chain. However, a masked layer consists of a dark-net where enormous amounts of money are concealed in cold storage where illegal websites and illicit commerce like ATM/ Debit/ Credit Card scams subjecting to illegal transactions rule over the deep net by utilizing the innocent public money. Case Presentation: The present study involves a case study where it was noted that innumerable ATM Debit/Credit Cards were skimmed and the illicit money was exchanged with this crypto-currency using an illicit website for bit coin mining and storing huge amounts of anonymous public money that was dictated by a few Nigerian Fraudsters running this racket all over the nation.