An Arizona man posing as an Uber driver was arrested after being accused of stealing near $300,000 in crypto from unsuspecting passengers, NBC Information stories.
Officers of the Scottsdale Police Division took 40-year-old Nuruhussein Hussein into custody on Dec. 11 to face felony fees of theft, fraud, and cash laundering.
In a collaborative effort with the USA Secret Service discipline workplace in Phoenix, police discovered proof of Hussein pretending to be an Uber driver between March and December 2024, selecting up individuals who known as for an actual Uber driver outdoors of a neighborhood lodge. As soon as the passengers have been inside, he would ask them to make use of their telephones for instructions.
With the telephone in hand, authorities say, Hussein was capable of switch a mixed $223,000 in crypto from the victims’ Coinbase accounts by phone-to-phone switch or telephone to chilly storage.
“Whereas manipulating the unsuspecting sufferer’s telephone, the suspect transferred cryptocurrency from their digital pockets to his digital pockets,” Scottsdale police stated in a press release.
Courtroom paperwork reveal one sufferer’s story of asking for his or her telephone again and Hussein offering a troubling reply. “He made threats to one of many victims that they wanted to sit back or one thing unhealthy would occur, and the sufferer believed that he had a gun, though he didn’t see a weapon at the moment,” FOX 10 Phoenix reported.
On account of state prosecutors arguing Hussein was a flight threat resulting from frequent journeys to Ethiopia, a choose set a safe bond of $200,000 and to be underneath digital monitoring.
As crypto turns into a well-liked supply of revenue in the USA, fraud has elevated drastically, changing into a significant concern for legislation enforcement. With near 70,000 complaints, $5.6 billion in crypto was misplaced resulting from fraud in 2023. The common age of a sufferer of crypto fraud is 60, however specialists warn that arrests related to this crime are uncommon.
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