A 17-year-old Lincolnshire boy has recently had 2 million pounds’ worth crypto seized by the police. The boy had launched a cyber fraud scheme from his bedroom back in April 2020. The scheme involved setting up a fake website that was identical to the official website of Love2Shop, a well-known online portal that’s in the business of selling gift vouchers.
After setting up the website, the boy paid Google to advertise his site. As a result of this, the fake website would appear above the official site. However, users in a hurry would typically end up on the fake website and buy vouchers. The boy accumulated almost 6,500 pounds and bought Bitcoins with the money.
The fake website only managed to last a week due to Love2Shop conducting a thorough investigation following a customer complaint. However, the damage was already done, as the boy managed to purchase cryptos that subsequently went up in value.
The boy was arrested in August 2020, and police managed to find 48 Bitcoins along with some other cryptocurrencies. When the crypto was initially seized, they only amounted to 200,000 pounds. However, now, their worth has soared to more than 2 million pounds.
The boy’s computer had details of 12,000 credit cards and 197 PayPal accounts as well. The boy admitted to committing money laundering during the April 9 – 16 period in 2020. He also admitted to committing fraud by false representation.
Catarina Sjoln Knight, a judge presiding over the case, said that the amount of 2,141,720 pounds that the boy earned through his crimes should be confiscated. The judge also stated that had the boy been an adult, he would have been in jail.
