Bitcoin is a virtual commodity whose price has continued to skyrocket due to speculation in recent years. Recently, the Henan Province Zhongyuan Oilfield Public Security Bureau successfully cracked the country's first Bitcoin theft case after more than three months of investigation.
On July 27 this year, the Henan Province Zhongyuan Oilfield Public Security Bureau received a call from Wu, a resident of the jurisdiction, claiming that more than 3.4 million yuan worth of Bitcoins he had stored in his online wallet were lost. Wu is a professional investor who started investing in Bitcoin in 2016. In early 2017, he was pulled into a WeChat group of Bitcoin investors.
Zhang Hongzhou, a police officer from the Criminal Investigation Detachment of Zhongyuan Petroleum Field Public Security Bureau in Henan Province: The group leader often posts some messages in the group, saying that it is not safe to put Bitcoin on the trading platform, and it is not absolutely safe. Then he contacts the victim, and when chatting through WeChat, he says that I have a software, and the (electronic) wallet generated by this software is absolutely safe. He sends this software to the victim, and the victim puts all the Bitcoins into this wallet.
WeChat chat records show that WeChat group leader Dai sent the software to Wu on July 16 this year. Following Dai's instructions, Wu deposited 188.31 Bitcoins into the online wallet that day. On July 25, Wu went online after returning from travel and found that the number of Bitcoins in his online wallet was actually 0. Subsequently, Wu contacted Dai many times, but Dai always used various reasons to deal with Wu and was unwilling to have direct contact with him. Under Wu's repeated questioning, Dai actually made an unexpected move.
Victim Wu: In the end, he said that he was also responsible. Although he taught me that I lost my coins, he was also out of good intentions and said that he would compensate me 10 (bit) coins, saying that he could only bear the part that he was responsible for. Later, he actually transferred money to me using Alipay. If it had nothing to do with him, how could he casually accompany others? Hundreds of thousands, not a small amount.
Crack password-stealing software, police arrest suspect
After preliminary investigation, the police determined that Dai, the owner of the WeChat group, was suspected of committing a major crime. On August 9 this year, the police detained Dai in Shanghai. In Dai's home, the police found 27 bank cards and multiple computers. In one of the computers, the police found an online wallet software that was exactly the same as that used by the victim Wu.
It turned out that Dai was proficient in software programming. After cracking the downloaded genuine wallet software, he added a program to transfer usernames and passwords to steal Bitcoins. Once someone else deposited Bitcoins into an electronic wallet, he would know the other person's account name and password and transfer the Bitcoins in the electronic wallet. He stored the stolen Bitcoins in hundreds of online wallets, transferred them back and forth, and sold them at a low price on the trading platform after confirming their safety. In this way, Dai has committed three crimes, involving more than 20 million yuan. At present, the police have identified Dai's account and frozen it, and have recovered more than 2 million yuan in stolen money.
The police reminded that Bitcoin is a virtual commodity and it is difficult to recover it if something goes wrong during the transaction.
Su Haizhou, Captain of the Serious Case Brigade of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Zhongyuan Petroleum Field Public Security Bureau of Henan Province: Our country has closed all three Bitcoin trading platforms before the end of October 2017. The country currently only recognizes Bitcoin as a virtual commodity and does not recognize its identity as a virtual currency. Therefore, you need to be cautious if you want to invest in Bitcoin.
(Originally titled "Henan Police cracked the country's first Bitcoin theft case")
