CryptoForensic Investigators

🚩💸 Top 5 Red Flags For Crypto Recovery Services 💸🚩 The only thing worse than being a victim to a NFT rug pull, a crypto investment scheme or pig butchering is to spend money on a recovery services, that DOESN'T actually recover your crypto. As Crypto Forensic Investigators, we understand the significant difficulty to recover lost or stolen Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency and we wanted to make sure when using some of the crypto recovery services out there, that you are cautious ⚠️ Here are just a few of the 🚩 to look out for: 🚩 No Public Faces Associated With Service: The founder or operator has no linkedin presence or seemingly any connection to other crypto compliance industry professionals and detailed information on their background can't be found 🚩Omit Importance Of Working With Law Enforcement: Even if our tracing capabilities take our investigation to a crypto exchange, a Subpoena or Law Enforcement Request along with other seizure documentation is needed to get back a victim's crypto. If the "recovery service" doesn't mention this - run! 🚩No Blockchain Analytics Relationship: Our blockchain investigations company proudly works with Chainalysis, TRM Labs and Crystal tools in order to trace various token types and get advanced chainhopping capabilities. So if your recovery service is not using cutting edge tools, chances are they may not be legit 🚩 Overly Optimistic About Recovery Chances: The reality is most recovery efforts don't end in recovery and any service that is providing extremely high expectations or certainty of recovery is at worst a scam and at best, lacks expertise in investigations and recovery processes 🚩 High Retainer Fees: The horror stories from victims of "fake crypto recovery services" usually have the same theme of extremely high upfront costs and retainers, which the victim pays out of distress and that is usually when the communication and recovery efforts decline. ⚠️ Are there legit and reputable crypto recovery services out there 🤷🏾♂️ Of Course, but unfortunately the industry is rife with underperformers and sometimes the original scammer posing as a recoery service. 🙋🏾♂️ If you want to read the full story on the blog with more 🚩and other interesting insights on "crypto recovery services" check out the comments ⬇️

🧠🤯 Are you being PSYCHOLOGICALLY Prepped to be a VICTIM of Crypto Scams 🤯🧠 Scammers are getting extremely creative about building rapport with their victims. They spend hours understanding your pattern, interests and behaviours online and using that data to launch sophisticated phishing attacks and to build a digital relationship. But scammers tactics have changed from SEND US MONEY right away... Paul Sibenik explains what NEW tactics, scammers and pig butcherers are using ⬇️ 🐷 Especially in pig butchering, scammers often don't bring up money or even crypto at all, direclty. 🏎️ They give you a glimpse of their lifestyle, explain that they have a family member (usually uncle) that has been seeing crazy returns in the crypto market and that they are also investing. 💡 The scammers actually get the victim to teach them something that the victim is an expert in and TO RETURN the favour, the scammer will then try to "teach" the victim how they are investing. 🚩 The scammers are soo good at this, that it "almost" appears that the victim initiated the investment conversation and thus red flags from the victim aren't there as much, since the scammer didn't immediately demand money 🧠 Psychological prepping could take weeks and maybe months. The longer the scammer is interacting with victims, the more trust and confidence the victim has in them. 🤷🏾♂️ We know it sounds very basic to say "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", but if you are ever being approached with a crypto opportunity, the best thing to do is talk to crypto compliance folks on LinkedIn 💜 The community is very open and they can spot a scam from a mile away and are usually quick to respond. Now we understand this isn't foolproof, but just talking the crypto investment out to someone else will raise red flags 🚩 Any other "prepping techniques" you have seen by scammers❓ Matthew Hogan, Hailey Windham, Aleks Ring ☘️, Paul Raffile, Erin West, Michele Ilich-Daubas, CAMS, CRC ☘️ 🚨 Stay Safe and Be Diligent Friends 🚨

🚀🔍 What Is The Best Blockchain Analytics Solution 🚀🔍 Loaded Question 😅 The right answer is whatever tools fits your specific needs. Different blockchain solution advantages will all depend on many factors like which blockchain you operate on, transaction volume, regulatory requirements etc. The MORE right answer is exactly what Paul Sibenik broke down with 🔌Stephen Sargeant and ✔️Jinisha Bhatt ⬇️ 🏆 Chainalysis is still one of the top tools we use and much of it has to do with the accuracy and vast attribution it has over many of its peers in the industry. The UX is clean and it is still the tool that most law enforcement use around the world, making for easier operational efficiencies. Its an investment but one that we are willing to make to get access to reliable data 🥈 TRM Labs is also a favorite of ours and many companies utilize multiple tools and usually TRM labs is working in successful unison with others. This is another tool that law enforcement around the world have taken a liking too and it allows us to support a wide range of victims, especially in pig butchering investigations 🥉 Crystal Intelligence is also one that we use, maybe not as much as the other tools but still they have built a reputation for great geographical coverage in high risk areas and provides collaboration tools that streamline investigation workflows and other compliance processes. This question usually stirs up a debate amongst investigators from all the different camps and forums and for many jurisdictions that don't have the capacity to afford expensive tools there are still free (close to free options) like Breadcrumbs The reality is the best tools will be the one that investigator has optimized the most in practical terms. If you don't have someone that can use the tools to their true potential, its really like having a Peloton and using it to hang laundry off of. Any additional insights 😅❓ Matthew Hogan, ❓ Alex Côté ❓ Erin West ❓ Ash Aiyar ❓ ✔️Jinisha Bhatt ❓ Paul M. as you have seen probably a wide range of tools and solutions

🕵🏽♂️What You Need To Know About DeFi Investigations🕵🏽♂️ Not all crypto investigations are the same and the differences between your traditional Bitcoin investigation and a DeFi exploit where you need to trace the funds, feel like universes apart. Paul Sibenik describes these nuances and we want to share a couple thoughts from his conversation with ✔️Jinisha Bhatt and 🔌Stephen Sargeant ⬇️ 🕵🏽♂️ Transparency - In DeFi investigations it's fairly transparent that the funds have been stolen. Whereas going to a crypto exchange on behalf of a victim, you have to sometimes prove that this wasn't a crypto deal gone bad or that it's an actual theft. 🔌Stephen Sargeant explained that you would be surprised about how many "false" claims are made to crypto exchanges trying to get another person's account frozen due to a deal or business partnership gone bad 🕵🏽♂️ Laundering Process - With most DeFi exploits you can see the crypto being moved and exchanged in realtime and the hackers like in the Bybit hack situation, have to decide how long they want to hold the funds before trying a number of obfuscation processes. Lazarus Group are notorious for holding the majority of the funds for years, while moving smaller amounts at a rapid pace. 🕵🏽♂️ Crypto Sleuths - Because the process and use of smart contract exchangers by hackers is transparent. You see alot more crypto sleuths on Twitter and other places able to join into the investigations and provide analysis and commentary. Although these sleuths aren't working for any specific blockchain analytics companies, individuals like #zachxbt leverage tools like TRM Labs to conduct investigations and these internet investigators have broken open some serious deficiencies found in the industry 🕵🏽♂️ In Demand Skillset - We have seen the demand rise for these type of defi investigators. Whether it be on Ethereum or some other lesser known blockchains, a new wave of investigator has emerged and the salaries usually compensate for this skillset. Many professionals are taking the Chainalysis Ethereum Investigation Certification (CEIC) or similar courses to get well versed. 🕵🏽♂️ Some of the DeFi investigators that we see in the industry are ⭐️ Nandita Merchant ⭐️ Jonno Newman ⭐️ Melanie Lefebvre ⭐️ Carlos Moreira • ⭐️ Ash Aiyar ⭐️ Adebayo Tiamiyu ⭐️ Nahid Rahman and many more 🎯 Anything We Missed About Defi Investigations 💭⬇️

🚩😅 Are Crypto Exchanges and Bitcoin ATMS Doing Enough To STOP SCAMS 😅🚩 That is the $2 Billion question. Where transnational criminals are executing the largest fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency and human trafficking that we have ever seen. I think its easy to say "Crypto Exchanges and ATMs are the problem", but as we discovered at CryptoForensic Investigators it's a little more complex and nuanced than just that. Here are some things to keep in mind if you are in compliance whether in the traditional or crypto world 💭⬇️ 🧩 The crypto companies are only seeing a piece of the puzzle. A new customer sending to a new crypto address, is hardly going to raise too many red flags and scams normally don't get reported or attributed in tools like Chainalysis and Crystal Intelligence until much later 🌍 Much of the illicit activity is connected to sometimes complex typologies where certain regions like Nigeria are using cryptocurrency in a way that seems perfectly legitimate (i.e. protecting against a devaluing fiat currency), but also such activity maybe connected to certain scams 🐷 Pig Butchering is all about exploiting trust from the victim. So many times a crypto exchange customer is not going to be exploited for months after the initial transfer from the legit exchange to a fake crypto platform that criminals operate, making it much harder for crypto exchanges to provide preventative measures 🛫 Travel Rule requirements in places like the EU will force exchanges and many bitcoin ATMs to obtain destination information of where their customers are sending funds too, which may lead to many red flags for compliance staff, which may not facilitate the payment 💔 Just like in traditional romance scams. The victim doesn't think they are a victim. And the reality is they will go to several exchanges and bitcoin ATMs - no matter the amount of times these organizations try to prevent them from sending money. We have watched enough Dr. Phil episodes to realize that victims will go to great length to send money to people they believe they are in love with. Any other things that crypto exchanges and bitcoin atms should take into account when dealing with these scams or frauds ⭐️ PJ Rohall ⭐️ Trisha Kothari ⭐️ Matthew Hogan, ⭐️ Paul Raffile ⭐️ Erin West ❓❓❓

🔍🕵🏽♂️ What We Are Looking For In A Crypto Investigator 🕵🏽♂️🔍 This is the Million dollar question for many getting into crypto. Truthfully our inbox is often full of people that want to lend their expertise or volunteer there services, but many aren't quite sure what we value at CryptoForensic Investigators. Here are the 🔑 characteristics that Paul Sibenik and the team are looking for when adding new members ⬇️ 🤷🏾♂️ They have used cryptocurrency. 🔌Stephen Sargeant added that this was one of the first things companies were looking for when he started in the industry in 2018 and not much has changed. Have you bought an NFT or staked some ETH or used a MetaMask wallet or even used some of the free blockchain visualizers like Arkham and others. 📚 A deep understanding on how crypto exchanges work and the law enforcement request process and/or how transactions are conducted is also helpful. Remember We don't RECOVER funds, we just create accurate forensic investigation reports that you need to furnish to law enforcement to start the legal process 🧠 Investigative or Skeptical Mindset. Basically do you have critical thinking skills where you can identify risk, suspicious indicators and other malicious typologies and be able to use those skills to support your investigations. In practice we think this is a hard skill to teach, but those that come from law enforcement and even bill collections or legal backgrounds, seem to have these related traits. 😇 Good Ethics. Do you want to genuinely want to help victims. We understand that we are a for profit business, but we also want to be sure that the mission of supporting victims, law firms and others in the industry is more important than just a paycheque. 💚 We also like for our investigators to have side projects where they are supporting the community. Whether that is supporting anti-human trafficking efforts or fighting pig butchering, we love that our team spends their free time supporting others. Curious to know what are some of the attributes you look for ⭐️ Ari Redbord ⭐️ Liat Shetret ⭐️ Erin West ⭐️ Crystal Noe ⭐️ Andrew Fierman ⭐️ Matthew Hogan, ⭐️ PJ Rohall ⬇️💭 What are some of the skills you look for in blockchain investigators 💭⬇️

👩🏽⚖️⚖️ Do Lawyers & Judges Understand Crypto ⚖️👩🏽⚖️ 7 years ago this would be an easy answer = NO (with the few exceptions) But over the course of multiple bull and bear markets, we have seen the level of expertise rise in the legal industry, but crypto is evolving so much and new technology and products come out so quickly that they just can't keep up. We at CryptoForensic Investigators are proud to support law firms and be expert witnesses in court, but as Paul Sibenik explains to 🔌Stephen Sargeant - the majority of lawyers still don't understand crypto to the level that they would need to, in order to properly serve their clients. 🤷🏾♂️ But in their defence crypto is incredibly complex and even more difficult to explain in various scenarios 📈 🔌Stephen Sargeant says he has seen alot more lawyers that specialize in web3 or have deep experience and work for either law firms or directly for crypto firms including ⭐️ Jane Khodarkovsky ⭐️ Olta Andoni, ⭐️ Addison Cameron-Huff ⭐️ Evan Thomas ⭐️ Brendan Cochrane, ⭐️ Arno Visser ⭐️ Moish Eli Peltz ⭐️ Justin Wales ⭐️ Jamilia Grier and so many more 🚀 It's great to see more and more legal counsel adopting the technology and crafting their own niche in various areas of law and web3. 👩🏽⚖️ Judges are definitely getting better as we can see with the uptick of seizure warrants, subpoenas and law enforcement requests and many cases that have set major precedents in crypto are extremely nuanced and complicated and judges seem to have ruled fairly. 💡 But just like crypto investigations, the level of expertise depends largely on the jurisdiction and "usually" heavily relies on private sector training. ⬇️💭 You Think Lawyers and Judges Are Crypto Savvy These Days 💭⬇️

🚨🚩 What Is The NEW Crypto SCAM That Nobody Is Talking About 🚩🚨 This scam isn't actually new, but it seems to be resurfacing in a major way. We remember when we first got into crypto many people feared attending conferences due to SIM Swaps and possible kidnapping. That fear seems to have faded with the newcomers to the space since 2021, but we are seeing a surge of kidnappings, most recently in 🇨🇦 with beloved Dean Skurka ( WonderFi) and also David Balland, of cryptocurrency hardware wallet company Ledger, and his wife were kidnapped, which resulted in bodily harm. But a new spin on these "in-person" CRYPTO SCAM universe we now have ...... 🚨 RIPPED DEAL SCAM 🚨 Paul Sibenik from CryptoForensic Investigators explains this in detail and here is how it works ⬇️ 🚩 A group contacts you (usually on linkedin) and says they want to invest in your company - will ask to meet you in person (usually in Europe) 🚩 They will say that you need to open your wallet in order for them to send crypto and they will ask you to complete a minimal transaction 🚩 What you don't know is that they have cameras strategically placed all around the venue and they are watching you access your wallet. Lisa Loud shared this with 🔌Stephen Sargeant in their Around The Coin Podcast and said that she almost was a victim of this scam and knows others that were 💜🚀 Share This SCAM Typology With your network - Especially as the European Crypto Conference Scene heats up 🚀💜

📃❓ Are Privacy Regulations Effective 📃❓ It's hard to say yes, when year after year, we hear about some of the largest data breaches in North America alone. The CRA, Ashley Madison, Equifax, Yahoo, LinkedIn, the list goes on. You name it, the hackers have your name, email address and a slew of other credentials and PII. Paul Sibenik sat down with ✔️Jinisha Bhatt and discussed that although privacy regulations are important, even the most comprehensive ones aren't going to protect against a honeypot of data and information that companies are not protecting properly. Crypto exchanges are no stranger to these sort of breaches. Many of the darknet markets and fraud shops operating in the dark web are selling stolen credentials or AI generated documents to attempt to circumvent compliant exchange's onboarding process. Even the Canada Revenue Agency - Agence du revenu du Canada was duped into releasing millions of dollars from attackers getting access to credentials on the darkweb and then filing bogus tax returns. If there is a loophole criminals are going to do their best to exploit it and crypto and non crypto companies need to start putting in place robust cybersecurity. Those that don't end up having to work with companies like ours to conduct forensic investigations to get their funds back. ❓🤷🏾♂️ Are data and privacy regulations even worth the energy we put into them ❓🤷🏾♂️

🏧❓ Are Crypto ATMs ONLY Used For Crypto Crime ❓🏧 If you were to ask 100 people this question, I think the large majority would say DEFINITELY YES. The next thing out of their mouth would be, there is NO legitimate reason to use crypto ATMs unless you are a victim of a crypto scam / pig butchering. 🔌Stephen Sargeant asked Paul Sibenik this very hard question and keeping in mind that Paul and the team are working alot of cases that see Bitcoin and other ATMs used as part of the crypto scam process. Here are a few thoughts from this conversation ⬇️ 🏧 Crypto ATMS really only target a certain demographic of people that are extremely new to crypto or that may need to do remittances around the world and the high transaction fees might still be cheaper than traditional money transfers 👿 Criminals love Bitcoin ATMs as it provides an easy non-face to face interaction for scam victims to get access to crypto and not have to deal with robust compliance departments or traditional bank personnel 🎯 Erin West and Matthew Hogan, have done a great job targeting these organizations that not only contribute to the pig butchering problem, but technically profit off the transaction fees from victim transfers 🚩This is a tough business model to run. Even if you are a compliant crypto ATM company you are competing with crypto ATMs within walking distance of your operation that doesn't do ANY KYC /AML practices, even though you are spending money on blockchain analytic tools and licensing 🤷🏾♂️ There is NO NEED for this many ATMs out there. This is 🔌Stephen Sargeant's personal opinion. That the supply far outweighs the demand, so the nefarious question arises, Why are there so many, especially being found in remote areas of elderly populations 🧑🏽⚖️ Laws are changing and more states in the USA are now starting to provide individual guidance and requirements for Bitcoin ATMs. Matthew Hogan, and Joseph Ciccolo, regularly show insights into Connecticut and California, as they keep up to date with treatment of Kiosks/ATMS 🤔 It does seem kind of weird that we scrutinize crypto ATMs more than traditional ATMs. They both serve the same purpose of convenience and speed, but for some reason crypto ATMs get a lot more hate. ⬇️💭 Feel free to add your thoughts / experiences with Crypto ATMs, as we love to explore this topic more in the future 💭⬇️