Marketrobo: Hundreds of millions of euros in damage on the Bitcoin platform

• Marketrobo scammers have even hired actors and voice actors for dual language commercials
• Damage could be over a billion euros
• IT forensic scientist Zinke follows the scammers’ trail to Holzkirchen near Munich

Since 2020, scammers have stolen several hundred million euros from bona fide customers in the context of alleged Bitcoin trading via the self-built “Marketrobo” platform. Several public prosecutors in Germany have been investigating – so far without success.

At some point, Marketrobo simply deleted all customer accounts

The BR journalists Maximilian Zierer and Hakan Tanriverdi did research for the Tagesschau and were able to speak to one of the victims, who, according to the journalists, would like to remain anonymous. During the conversation, it was learned that the scammers advertised their professionally designed Marketrobo platform with the promise of increasing the money invested by customers “hourly”. The advertising took place, among other things, by e-mail, and they convinced the journalists’ interlocutor of the investment during a personal telephone call. The principle was simple: the customers should buy BTC and send them to the scammers so that they can multiply them for the former. However, this did not happen: instead, at some point the customer accounts were simply deleted, so that the victims no longer had access to their money.

According to BR research, the telephone numbers were fake, and the perpetrators apparently even hired actors and speakers to record advertising videos in German and English and invented the agency that commissioned the advertising emails.

Investigations by the public prosecutor’s office have come to nothing, and the damage may run into the billions

BTC transactions are stored in the blockchain and can be viewed publicly – however, only the addresses (number codes) of those involved are stored: It is unclear who is behind them. After the entire platform went offline in the summer of 2020, the public prosecutor’s office was unable to investigate further due to a lack of information. The Tagesschau quotes a letter from the Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office from November 2021: “According to the experience here, it basically makes no sense to follow the path of money with Bitcoin transactions anyway.” And that despite the fact that the damage, according to the Tagesschau alone, is several hundred million euros in the cases that end up with the Bamberg public prosecutor’s office. The news portal quotes the deputy head of the central office for cybercrime in Bavaria: “I can’t say whether we’ve already ripped the billion. But the damage amounts are unimaginable.”

A private investigator was able to follow the trail to a machine in the Munich area

The anonymous victim, with whom the BR journalists were able to speak, invested around 60,000 euros in Marketrobo and was not satisfied with the inconclusive investigations by the public prosecutor. Instead, the person concerned commissioned the private IT forensic scientist Rebecca Zinke with the case. This was able to trace the transactions to Holzkirchen near Munich, as the BR research revealed. At least some of the stolen BTC were exchanged for cash at a machine there. As Zierer and Tanriverdi were able to find out from the Munich II public prosecutor’s office, the machine was operated without a valid license and is now inactive. The owners of the shop where the machine was located apparently did not want to comment on the subject even when asked by the journalists.

This is where the scammers’ trail ends. It is now necessary to find out who is behind the blockchain number code of the transaction recipient. However, it is not yet clear whether this will be possible.

Editorial office finanzen.net

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