- Police in Scottsdale, Arizona have arrested a crypto scammer
- He posed as an Uber driver and tricked customers into accessing their passengers’ wallets
- He was charged $300K in theft, fraud, and money laundering
Police in Scottsdale, Arizona arrested Nuruhussein Hussein on charges of money theft, fraud, and money laundering. According to the charge, he posed as an Uber driver and fraudulently accessed passengers’ smartphones before transferring their cryptocurrency to his wallet.
The total amount of his thefts is approximately $300K, but this is not the final amount. For now, the suspect has been placed in Maricopa County Jail and both police and the Secret Service and the investigation is ongoing.
More About the Crime and Charges Against Nuruhussein Hussein
According to NBC News, Nuruhussein Hussein posed as an Uber driver and picked up passengers who ordered a ride. During the trip, he obtained access to passengers’ smartphones under pretenses, such as looking up directions or connecting to the Uber app.
While unsuspecting victims helped the fake driver, he transferred cryptocurrency from their wallet to his own, and continued this scheme allegedly from March to December this year, and the total amount of his thefts is now estimated to be around $300K.
“While manipulating the unsuspecting victim’s phone the suspect transferred cryptocurrency from their digital wallet to his digital wallet.”
However, the circumstances of the case and the true extent of the damage continue to be investigated, and in the meantime, Nuruhussein Hussein has been charged with theft, fraud and money laundering and remains in Maricopa County Jail.
The court set bail at $200K, but with a ban on internet use as well as a ban on leaving Maricopa County because the suspect travels frequently to Ethiopia and this poses a flight risk.
In turn, this highlights a important statistic where cryptocurrencies are becoming not only a valuable tool for the financial system but also for criminals.
Conclusion
These statistics probably won’t go down this year or next, and will only increase if the value and role of cryptocurrencies continues to do so.
Be careful to never, ever give anyone access to your data or the devices that store it.
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