Behind the wave of false mining attacks that hit Russia in December, a client of the notoriousWEX bitcoin exchange named Sergey. He lives in Kiev and 120 BTC are really frozen on his site, writes the BBC Russian Service.
</p>According to the publication, since the end of November, the courtsSt. Petersburg received 180 reports of mining. Similar letters were received in schools, kindergartens and shopping centers. Massive false signals also affected Moscow, and, according to some estimates, a total of more than 1 million people were evacuated.
It is currently unclear whether all cases are related toan anonymous miner demanding 120 bitcoins from entrepreneur Konstantin Malofeev. Some consider the latter to be involved in the deal to sell WEX to the ex-militant «DPR» Dmitry Khavchenko, as well as the subsequent withdrawal of user assets.
BBC: the owner of «Tsargrad» is involved in the theft of bitcoins from the Wex cryptocurrency exchange. Konstantin Malofeev
Several BBC sources have confirmed that forthreats may be a WEX user from Kiev. According to one version, this person was engaged in an exchange through the exchange and lost not only his money, but also the money of his clients.
The costs of maintaining a wave of false mining are practically reduced to zero, writes the BBC with reference to the head of the special development department of the Technopark of St. Petersburg. Igor Bederov.
«The costs to criminals are minimal, if not reduced to zero. They need a clean SIM card, a modem, a computer, a browser with a built-in anonymizer», — The publication quotes him.
In one of his letters, the false miner used a phrase from the new Netflix series “The Witcher”, inviting the Orthodox businessman Malofeev to “pay the witcher with minted coin.”
Recall, the initiative group of WEX users believes that the mining campaign could be organized by Malofeev himself to discredit them and stop activity on the exchange in the legal field.
In one of the letters in late December, the miner thought about increasing the ransom.
“How much more work needs to be done to cause 120 bitcoins of damage, and at what amount of damage will Malofeev come to his senses - 5,000 bitcoins or 10,000?».
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