Kenyan Students Arrested For Using Bitcoin In Money Laundering

Kenyan Students Captured For Laundering Money In BTC.

According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Kenya, a group of Kenyan students has been stealing the email of credit cards of people from other countries by using a technique called email phishing to buy Bitcoin with stolen cards.

BITCOIN THUGS ARRESTED
A notorious gang that has been hacking people’s credit cards before using them to purchase bitcoins and convert them to Kenyan currency, have been arrested in Nakuru city. The gang operating from houses in the affluent Milimani neighborhood has been on our pic.twitter.com/BNG40QpxkU

— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) June 16, 2022

After obtaining innocent people’s personal information through bogus emails, the students use the stolen credit card numbers to buy bitcoin, which they subsequently exchange for Kenyan shillings.

According to the report, Kenyatta University students Francis Maina Wambui Alias Nick, 26, and Zellic Alusa, 25, were both detained during the raid in the presence of two young girls. Both suspects go by the alias Nick.

During the arrest, the suspect’s belongings including five computers, four cellphones, two wifi devices, three hard drives, and a variety of SIM cards were found.

Although the crew targets credit cards belonging to persons residing in other countries, Kenyans have also suffered financial losses as a result of cybercrime connected to banking. In 2018, total losses were $295 million, which was an increase over 2017’s total of $210 million.

The District Attorney’s Office claims that the two college students will use the ill-gotten gains to support their extravagant way of life. According to the reports, the students also used the looted money to acquire houses and to engage in sexual activities

Following the search of an apartment in which the two individuals were doing their business, the DCI said that one of the papers that had been found was a leasehold agreement that had been signed on May 25 for a property located in Juja and valued at Sh 850,000 ($7,240).

A few days before the raid, the Kenya National Police Service launched a forensics lab to combat escalating cybercrime and cryptocurrency fraud. This is another move by Kenyan authorities to clamp down on hackers who appear unaffected by the 2018 Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act, which stipulates a 2-year prison sentence and a $2,000 fine for exploiting a payment network to launder money.

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