Bitfinex Hackers Arrested After Conducting A Phishing Fraud

Bitfinex hackers were arrested in Israel after conducting a phishing scheme since 2016 and stealing over $100 million in crypto. In the coming altcoin news below we find out more about the attackers.

The Bitinfex hack that happened in 2016 as well, was operated by two Israeli brothers Eli and AssafGigi who stole millions in crypto. The infamous Bitfinex hack of more than 119 Bitcoins, shocked the entire crypto market mainly because of the huge loss that occurred on the exchange right after the Mt. Gox breach in early 2014. Earlier this month, some of the stolen bitcoin funds were recorded moving from multiple wallets connected with the hack after three years of not moving.

According to the Israeli crime news portal Posta reports, many cyber units in the world are cooperating in order to retrieve the missing funds. The majority of the compromised accounts were mainly from the United States. However, back in February, Bitfinex announced that some of the stolen bitcoins are returned with the help of the United States government. The Bitfinex hackers Eli 31 and Assaf 21, also allegedly operated a phishing scheme that involved scamming investors form crypto trading forums such as Reddit or Telegram to websites that mimicked popular crypto exchanges. They collected their traders’ login and wallet information and used it to transfer the funds right to their wallets.

The police say that they have used other tactics as well including posting dropping links to wallet management software that if once downloaded allows the access to their victims’ funds. During the raid as noted in the latest cryptocurrency news, in of one of the Bitfinex hackers house, the Israeli Police seized one of the crypto wallets with less than the suspected total of the stolen funds. They also found two luxury cars. Eli was a computer science expert in IDF and even one Reddit users stated that it ‘’would be Unit 8200, the largest military branch in the Israeli army since it specializes in hacking, spying, creating computer viruses and many of them are now employed by Coinbase, Microsoft and Google.’’ Eli stated in court:

‘’I was wrong, I came from a bad place. I’m a good boy, and I’m sorry. I’m willing to cooperate.”