Soon after Satoshi Nakamoto invented the Bitcoin, the criminal activities also followed his invention. Several criminal minds started to use it for illegal purposes. Along with the evolvement of cryptocurrency, the number of crimes is also raising. For instance, a man was arrested in the UK for selling drugs online. That man used cryptocurrency as a medium to illegally sell drugs.
He made a huge sum of money in exchange for drugs. But his crime could not be hidden from the sharp eyes of the UK police officer, Phil Ariss. Phil is renowned for his anti-cybercrime efforts and specialization. He arrested Paul Johnson and saved the country from another online crime.
The UK cop who arrested this man has been teaching other police officers on how to deal with crypto crimes in Leicestershire. His tactics and training are prominent outside of the UK.
A Specialized UK Cop Who Handles Crypto Crimes
The officer, Phil Ariss arrested Paul Johnson on April 18. Johnson was selling narcotics online and he made more than $2.5 million through his criminal activities. He has been jailed for more than eight years now and all of the money is recovered.
Ariss stated that digital media investors also accompanied the officers when Johnson was arrested. Along with the other officers, he recovered $375,300 worth of crypto assets from this warrant.
Leicestershire officer Phil Ariss is working as crypto police since 2016. He joined East Midlands Special Operations Unit Cybercrime Team in 2016. And since then he is actively handling cryptocurrency-related crimes. He also joined Police Chief Council’s (NPCC) program in 2018. This program also deals with cybercrimes.
According to Ariss, cryptocurrency crimes are rising every day and criminals are using Bitcoins to loot people through the web. He along with his team is training other officers to tackle crypto criminal activities.
He is even training several domestic and international authorities. This training involves specialized training to tackle crypto crimes in the respective countries.
Current Status of Crypto Scams In UK
Ariss stated that since he first joined as a police officer in 2008, there was no case of cybercrime during that time. And he even confirmed that he never thought of becoming a virtual currency specialist police officer.
Cybercrime is not just limited to illegal drugs but scammers are also stealing money through blackmailing and other frauds. These scammers remain anonymous and people fall prey to their fraud.
Although there was no case of cybercrime in the UK for many years, the past two years have been crucial for the crypto industry. In the last two years, there were 562 cases of Bitcoin-related frauds in the UK alone.
This number proves that the BTC frauds are going anywhere but decreasing. According to the crypto cop, in several cases, the digital money was recovered. So, it was a clear victory of the strategic policing to retrieve the cryptocurrency of many people.
What’s the Vision of This Officer to Protect the Digital Currency?
Cryptocurrency is exploited in more than one way by the criminals. People are getting scammed almost every day. According to some reports, the famous terrorism organizations are also using cryptocurrencies to fund their illegal motives.
Since every coin has two faces, whenever the criminals tried to exploit the market, the law enforcement was able to catch them red-handed. The advantage of handling digital fraud is the ability to track it at every step.
Ariss is clear with his vision. He wants the law to come forward and take action for such offenders. He even insists that law enforcement should take place to stop such frauds. Since cryptocurrency is being used widely, there are more chances of breach than ever.
Unlike traditional transactions, Bitcoin transactions are recorded at every step. Thus, it can help law enforcement to track the criminal. Just because it is a trackable offense, it doesn’t mean it is easy to catch the criminals for the cops. The officers have to take advanced steps to make sure every transaction is tracked closely.
Hackers and criminals are using Bitcoins to sift through from one target to another. In other words, financial privacy is at a huge risk. To save multiple innocent people, Ariss is training the officers and making them aware of cybercrimes.
The law enforcement agencies have to work along with other tech firms to trace the culprits easily. ComplyAdvantage and Elliptic are such tech firms that help the police in targeting these criminals.
The vision of the crypto cop seems in favor of cryptocurrency security. However, there is more intuitive technical measure have to come in place to protect the cyber frauds. It can be equipping existing law enforcement with the latest cryptocurrency knowledge or joining hands with tech firms that analyze the blockchain patterns to catch the criminals quickly.