Six people have been arrested in a joint UK and Dutch operation as part of an investigation into a €24 million cryptocurrency theft that affected thousands of victims in 12 countries.
Eurojust, the EU’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, and Europol, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, announced that six people have been arrested following a 14-month joint investigation with the UK's South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit, the Dutch Police and the UK's National Crime Agency.
The five men and one woman are suspected of targeting users' bitcoin tokens, affecting at least 4,000 victims in 12 countries, but these numbers are expected to rise.
The suspects were arrested simultaneously in Charlcombe, Bath, Trowbridge, UK, and Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The agencies said that the investigation relates to "typosquatting", where a "well-known online cryptocurrency exchange is 'spoofed', or recreated to imitate a genuine site to gain access to victims' bitcoin wallets, their login Details and funds.
The two agencies said:
"The arrested criminals are suspected of having committed computer misuse act offences and money laundering."
This case was referred to the European Cybercrime Centre and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce hosted at Europol after the British authorities identified possible suspects living in the Netherlands.
Operational support delivered by European Cybercrime Centre since February 2018 allowed the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce to co-ordinate the international co-operation between the different EU Member States involved.