A group of “Call of Duty” players from Indiana have been accused of stealing over $3 million in Cryptocurrencies. They coerced an Illinois man to aid them in remotely hacking unsecured crypto wallets on over 100 cell phones.

SWATing incident coerces man to Hack over 100 phones

In Bloomington, Illinois a local man informed the FBI that he met the members of the group of cybercriminals online while playing Call of Duty. In the game, players can communicate with each other in real-time and with relative privacy.

The group, based out of Dolton, Indiana, allegedly used an intimidation tactic called “SWATing.” This is an illegal and dangerous phenomenon that has become increasingly popular in online gaming communities.

SWATing refers to a false report of a violent crime at someone’s home, which prompts a response from a SWAT team, after calling the police. It’s frequently used as a method of payback, or, as in this case, as a means to intimidate or threaten an individual.

According to the FBI affidavit, the man admitted to taking over the cell phones of more than 100 people. Once the group took over a phone, they were able to hack into a victim’s cryptocurrency account and drain their funds. The suspects mentioned in the affidavit are yet to be revealed as they don’t appear to have been charged with any crimes.

According to the FBI, it is suspected that the group has stolen at least $3.3 million in various cryptocurrencies, which includes about $805,000 in Augur’s Reputation Tokens. The group then allegedly moved the stolen tokens through cryptocurrency networks, such as Ether or Bitcoin, into their digital wallets.

Crypto Thefts tallying Over $1.1 Billion

Carbon Black, a cybersecurity firm, has conducted a study that estimates the total amount of cryptocurrency that has been stolen through cybercrime this year alone is over $1.1 billion.

According to the Carbon Black report, many cybercriminals are using the dark web. They estimate that there are over 12,000 marketplaces with almost three times that number of crypto theft listings between them.

Rick McElroy, a security strategist at Carbon Black, reported that

“it’s surprising just how easy it is without any tech skill to commit cybercrimes like ransomware… It’s not always these large nefarious groups, it’s in anybody’s hands.”

According to McElroy, specific pieces of malware even comes with customer service, which cybercriminals. The damaging software costs an average of $224 but can be obtained for as little as $1.04.

Many of the attacks against crypto users, companies, and exchanges are from an organized group of criminals. However, McElroy does suggest that they’re just as likely to be the product of a trained engineer who is out of work.

“You have nations that are teaching coding, but there are no jobs… It could just be two people in Romania needing to pay rent.”

Do you know of SWATing incidents that have coerced people into committing cybercrime? Do you think that people commit cyber crimes because they are out of work or is it organized groups like those in Indiana? Don’t hesitate to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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