Monero - not as safe as it seems ?

[DrBeer]

Fresh news from the crypto space.

“Japanese police uncovered a fraudulent scheme with a total loss of more than 100 million yen ($663,000) and arrested the organizer after tracking transactions in Monero (XMR). This is reported by local media.
The detainee, Yuta Kobayashi, is suspected of fraud and money laundering. Authorities assume that he was the organizer of a criminal group that used stolen credit card data to buy non-existent goods on the Mercari platform, then laundered funds in Monero.
In total, law enforcers have tracked about 900 transactions in this cryptocurrency allegedly linked to the group. The total damage from this as well as other schemes of the attackers is estimated at 100 million yen.
In total, the group included 18 people not counting the organizer. As noted in the police, newcomers were recruited through offers of illegal part-time work in social networks.
The law enforcement agencies emphasized that this is the first cybercrime operation in the history of the country, which managed to track transactions in Monero.

Recall, this cryptoasset uses the Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) approach, which significantly complicates the tracking of transactions and their participants. Because of this, Monero (XMR) is categorized as a privacy coin.

This, among other things, is what prompted the banning of these cryptoassets in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) approved in the EU in March 2024. ”

https://incrypted.com/polytsyja-japonyy-vpervye-otsledyla-tranzaktsyy-v-monero/
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUE211MN0R21C24A0000000/

Your thoughts on this ?

[bitterguy28]

The law enforcement agencies emphasized that this is the first cybercrime operation in the history of the country, which managed to track transactions in Monero.

i do not see this news as something negative for monero if anything this news puts pressure on the security of credit cards there have been 900 fraudulent transactions made by kobayashi with credit cards he stole through phishing and the management companies willingly paid for these “failed” transactions

shows how their system can be easily exploited by anyone who knows how

Recall, this cryptoasset uses the Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) approach, which significantly complicates the tracking of transactions and their participants. Because of this, Monero (XMR) is categorized as a privacy coin.

This, among other things, is what prompted the banning of these cryptoassets in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) approved in the EU in March 2024. ”

quite ironic that out of all cryptocurrencies out there it was monero that was able to help them track this criminal mastermind when everyone was hating on crypto/monero for basically giving criminals a platform to launder money but look how it has actually helped the authorities

haters will not like this story

[philipma1957]

Not so sure how those "untraceable monero transactions" were done.

If mixers or exchanges were involved tracing is more possible.

If you had a few cell phone wallets and drove around a few cities mixing them around I think they would have been far harder to trace.

[Baofeng]

I'm not sure how reliable those news that they were able to track it down when criminals uses XMR. It's one of the best if not the best privacy coins for now and maybe have tried to break or trace it and so far no one has come forward till this day.

For me thinking about it, possible that they have found the criminals by their own fault. Maybe this missed some important things or shall we say, a misstep on their part that's why they were able to be traced back by the Japanese authorities and not merely cracking the code of Monero.

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

[TomPluz]

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

In my own estimate, that's more likely like that. Usually, experienced authorities or those in police work specializing on online criminals are just waiting for some red flags, clues, missteps done by people whom they are following and as humans as we are and no matter how super careful we could we as time goes on there will always be like that. And then details will emerge after these criminals are captured. I am not so sure on Monero, actually, as it remains to be one of the top privacy coins in the market and so far associated as a big tool with skipping the government and those in the law.

[DrBeer]

The law enforcement agencies emphasized that this is the first cybercrime operation in the history of the country, which managed to track transactions in Monero.

i do not see this news as something negative for monero if anything this news puts pressure on the security of credit cards there have been 900 fraudulent transactions made by kobayashi with credit cards he stole through phishing and the management companies willingly paid for these “failed” transactions

shows how their system can be easily exploited by anyone who knows how

Recall, this cryptoasset uses the Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT) approach, which significantly complicates the tracking of transactions and their participants. Because of this, Monero (XMR) is categorized as a privacy coin.

This, among other things, is what prompted the banning of these cryptoassets in the Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (AMLR) approved in the EU in March 2024. ”

quite ironic that out of all cryptocurrencies out there it was monero that was able to help them track this criminal mastermind when everyone was hating on crypto/monero for basically giving criminals a platform to launder money but look how it has actually helped the authorities

haters will not like this story

If a private key or a seed phrase is stolen through phishing, a person will lose their assets just the same. It's just that the audience of cardholders is more careless than participants of the crypto world, and cardholders outnumber crypto wallet holders by orders of magnitude. But cryptocurrencies are being stolen. And here it is necessary to be honest - if when stealing cards the money can be returned, then stolen cryptocurrencies - disappear forever ...

And the last phrase, if I understood it correctly, is not an advantage or disadvantage of Monero, just a criminal used it. It's like saying - we have identified the criminal who owns a Macbook laptop, it was Macbook and iOS that helped us track down the criminal, so it's better than Windows or Linux !

[ABCbits]

Your thoughts on this ?

I can't read Japanese language, but this part of news you shared seems to be real reason how authority track the criminal. It should be much easier rather than breaking Monero's privacy feature or cryptography.

Authorities assume that he was the organizer of a criminal group that used stolen credit card data to buy non-existent goods on the Mercari platform, then laundered funds in Monero.

[hugeblack]

Tracking 100 million yen ($663,000) would be easier than tracking a few thousand dollars since it would require a platform to sell all that money and it could easily raise suspicions about it especially if it was in a country where $663,000 is a large amount. As for how to track it, a small mistake could lead governments to you especially since you cannot spend that money using Monero alone.

[DrBeer]

I'm not sure how reliable those news that they were able to track it down when criminals uses XMR. It's one of the best if not the best privacy coins for now and maybe have tried to break or trace it and so far no one has come forward till this day.

For me thinking about it, possible that they have found the criminals by their own fault. Maybe this missed some important things or shall we say, a misstep on their part that's why they were able to be traced back by the Japanese authorities and not merely cracking the code of Monero.

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

That is the key question - is this really very high quality and sophisticated japanese police work, or is it a “0-day” vulnerability found in the Monero protocol ? If the former - respect and honor to the Japanese police, if the latter option - the Monero ecosystem is in great danger...

[i_show_speed]

Probably there is someting else about this story, or it is exaggerated in a way. I don't believe that Japanece police managed to
 track transactions in Monero without having an insider source of information among criminals. If it is true and they did track transactions in Monero it is a serious reputation damage and bad news for all Monero holders.

[MrSpasybo]

That is the key question - is this really very high quality and sophisticated japanese police work, or is it a “0-day” vulnerability found in the Monero protocol ? If the former - respect and honor to the Japanese police, if the latter option - the Monero ecosystem is in great danger...

Yeah, things are probably more complicated than what we're reading from the Japanese announcement. Monero has always been the most secure privacy coin protocol out there, to the point where many CEXs have been forced to delist XMR to avoid pressure from anti-money laundering agencies. I don't understand how the Japanese police could track the details of transactions on Monero.

The Monero community should have a clearer explanation of this issue so that users and investors can continue to stay with Monero. Personally, I guess the criminals who were caught voluntarily confessed to their crimes and handed over their transaction history to the police.

[Baofeng]

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

In my own estimate, that's more likely like that. Usually, experienced authorities or those in police work specializing on online criminals are just waiting for some red flags, clues, missteps done by people whom they are following and as humans as we are and no matter how super careful we could we as time goes on there will always be like that. And then details will emerge after these criminals are captured. I am not so sure on Monero, actually, as it remains to be one of the top privacy coins in the market and so far associated as a big tool with skipping the government and those in the law.

Exactly, and how many times that we heard that before? even in Bitcoin? This scammers made just one mistake of even depositing those that they though are untraceable to a CEX and obviously, the authorities track it and work with that CEX to identify the person behind.

So it's not that Monero as the top privacy coins has been broken by the Japanese, because if it did, for sure it will be a big news today. But so far none from Monero has come forward to admit it.

[DrBeer]

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

In my own estimate, that's more likely like that. Usually, experienced authorities or those in police work specializing on online criminals are just waiting for some red flags, clues, missteps done by people whom they are following and as humans as we are and no matter how super careful we could we as time goes on there will always be like that. And then details will emerge after these criminals are captured. I am not so sure on Monero, actually, as it remains to be one of the top privacy coins in the market and so far associated as a big tool with skipping the government and those in the law.

Exactly, and how many times that we heard that before? even in Bitcoin? This scammers made just one mistake of even depositing those that they though are untraceable to a CEX and obviously, the authorities track it and work with that CEX to identify the person behind.

So it's not that Monero as the top privacy coins has been broken by the Japanese, because if it did, for sure it will be a big news today. But so far none from Monero has come forward to admit it.

If transactions are not traceable, then it turns out the transfer to the СEX of the exchange does not carry any threat of disclosure of links between the wallet of the criminal and his account on the exchange !
In addition, I do not think that the criminal who is hiding, will identify himself with his real data on the exchange ...

Therefore, I am of the opinion that there are some “nuances” in the work of the Monero protocol, which allow you to still link transactions and analyze them

[philipma1957]

I'm not sure how reliable those news that they were able to track it down when criminals uses XMR. It's one of the best if not the best privacy coins for now and maybe have tried to break or trace it and so far no one has come forward till this day.

For me thinking about it, possible that they have found the criminals by their own fault. Maybe this missed some important things or shall we say, a misstep on their part that's why they were able to be traced back by the Japanese authorities and not merely cracking the code of Monero.

It's bad practice by the criminals that leads authorities to team.

It is very likely they used a honeypot mixer. The mixer then informed the government and they were caught.

[Faisal2202]

quite ironic that out of all cryptocurrencies out there it was monero that was able to help them track this criminal mastermind when everyone was hating on crypto/monero for basically giving criminals a platform to launder money but look how it has actually helped the authorities

haters will not like this story

It's a good point of view I mean they have restricted Monero because of its privacy and untraceable transactions but if Japan has done it then other countries can also do it but they might not be making this public (who knows if they are doing it) well so does it mean XMR will not be restricted anymore.

I don't use Monero for privacy but they did not share the whole method of tracking them as well maybe they tracked the transactions done by these new recruits on the site and they tracked these 18 members and they led to the main player of the scam and got caught and they changed the story that they tracked the transactions of XMR to track the scammers.