Today's story involved a stupid amount of research. I'm so glad I can share it now.
How Cryptocurrency Turns to Cash in Russian Banks
A financial firm registered in Canada has emerged as the payment processor for dozens of Russian cryptocurrency exchanges and websites hawking cybercrime services aimed at Russian-speaking customers, new research finds. Meanwhile, an investigation into the Vancouver street address used by this company shows it is home to dozens of foreign currency dealers, money transfer businesses, and cryptocurrency exchanges — none of which are physically located there.
krebsonsecurity.com/2024/12/ho…
teasers:
The 122 services targeted in Sanders’ research include some of the more prominent businesses advertising on the cybercrime forums today, such as:
-abuse-friendly or “bulletproof” hosting providers like anonvm[.]wtf, and PQHosting;
-sites selling aged email, financial, or social media accounts, such as verif[.]work and kopeechka[.]store;
-anonymity or “proxy” providers like crazyrdp[.]com and rdp[.]monster;
-anonymous SMS services, including anonsim[.]net and smsboss[.]pro.
According to Sanders, all 122 of the services he tested are processing transactions through a company called Cryptomus, which says it is a cryptocurrency payments platform based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Cryptomus’ website says its parent firm — Xeltox Enterprises Ltd. (formerly certa-pay[.]com) — is registered as a money service business (MSB) with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
Sanders said the payment data he gathered also shows that at least 56 cryptocurrency exchanges are currently using Cryptomus to process transactions, including financial entities with names like casher[.]su, grumbot[.]com, flymoney[.]biz, obama[.]ru and swop[.]is.
These platforms are built for Russian speakers, and they each advertise the ability to anonymously swap one form of cryptocurrency for another. They also allow the exchange of cryptocurrency for cash in accounts at some of Russia’s largest banks — nearly all of which are currently sanctioned by the United States and other western nations.
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/113636373615016748
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/12/how-cryptocurrency-turns-to-cash-in-russian-banks/
@briankrebs is this what Vancouver’s mayor meant by making the city “bitcoin friendly”!?
@briankrebs Similar to Canada’s largest bank being fined hundreds of millions of dollars by US regulators for laundering drug money?
No wonder Trump wants it as the 51st state.
2024-12-12 victorvonvortex ┃ 1🔗
@briankrebs
Coincidentally, I saw this story from the CBC just before seeing yours.
[…]
@briankrebs Grumbot, named after the 'robot' made by MumboJumbo and Grian in HermitCraft.
@briankrebs Speaking of Vancouver and crypto, @carkner . Is this the dynamism the mayor was talking about? 🧐
@briankrebs
Sadly, Canada has long been known as a place to launder money, and this is not surprising.
[…]
2024-12-11 cryptadamist ┃ edited ┃ 2🔗 3#️
@briankrebs i see #Revolut, whose CEO is the son of if not quite an oligarch at least an executive at one of #Russia's state energy companies.
Revolut had ~$400 million appear on its books out […]
@briankrebs
Awesome work
@briankrebs
Red flags everywhere!! 🚩
[…]
2024-12-11 deFractal ┃ edited ┃ 2#️ 1👤
@briankrebs Hon. @Paulatics (since you're the only one I've seen here), please give the above a read and forward it to your peers and counterparts.
#cdnnatsec #cdnpoli
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