Police Bust Crypto Scam Ring in Philippines

Police in the Philippines have freed over 1,000 victims, mostly Vietnamese and Chinese, from various Southeast Asian nations who were held captive and forced to take part in crypto scams. Reports indicate that the victims were duped into flying to the Philippines for what they thought were online jobs or free flights and accommodation, before being forced to work up to 18 hours daily promoting scam crypto investments. Police also arrested 12 individuals believed to be connected with the Colorful and Leap Group, accused of fraud allegations and crypto scams. According to blockchain security firm CertiK, crypto scams led to $100m in losses in April as exit scams continued to be a major problem. Both ChatGPT and AI are becoming relevant for crypto scammers to distribute malware through this new technology. Crypto markets have stumbled recently with total capitalisation presently at $1.2tn and Bitcoin hovering around $28,000.