Chinese authorities are intensifying their efforts to combat cybercrime in the Web3 sector following a surge in personal identity thefts and digital financial crimes. The Ministry of Public Security in China recently revealed that there have been numerous incidents involving the use of Trojan viruses, phishing sites, infiltration tools, and cyberstalkers in fraud and data theft.
During a press conference, Jinfeng Sun, political commissar of the Network Security Bureau, stated that they have been closely monitoring the use of emerging technologies such as Chat GPT, cloud computing, blockchain, deepfake AI, and related applications and organizations.
To date, there have been 79 cases of fraud involving deepfake AI, with 515 individuals arrested for engaging in activities such as impersonation through digital face-swap. One notable arrest involves a money laundering scheme worth 54.8 million USDT (USDT), with 21 individuals apprehended by Shanxi Police. The suspects allegedly obtained USDT from Chinese residents at below-market value and sold them for fiat on international exchanges, profiting from the price difference while transferring their clients’ money abroad.
It is worth noting that China imposes strict controls on capital outflows, limiting Chinese nationals to purchase no more than $50,000 worth of foreign currencies annually. Despite these controls, accusations have been made against Chinese authorities for embezzling funds through enforcement measures in cryptocurrency projects.
In a separate incident, cross-chain protocol Multichain faced an unfortunate fate after its CEO, Zhaojun He, was arrested by the police. Details surrounding He’s detention remain undisclosed, while funds belonging to both Multichain developers and users have been converted to stablecoins and privacy coins before being transferred out of the exchange.
This crackdown on cybercrime in China’s Web3 sector highlights the government’s commitment to maintaining law and order in the digital realm.