Spanish Police Dismantle Crypto Crime Gang Using AI for Fraud, Seize Over $21 Million

On April 12th, according to the report by Decrypt, the Spanish police carried out a two-year operation and arrested six individuals. They dismantled a cryptocurrency investment scam ring that employed artificial intelligence to defraud 208 people, with a total amount of over 19 million euros (21.5 million dollars). The Spanish National Police stated that the operation commenced two years ago when a man in Granada reported to the police after losing 624,000 euros (over 700,000 dollars). Officials said that the suspects used artificial intelligence technology to create highly realistic deepfake videos of celebrities in order to deceive potential investors and make them hand over cash. To sustain the scam, the group would inform the victims that in order to unlock their initial investment, they needed to inject more money into the scheme - a scheme that promised huge returns through cryptocurrency investments. The Spanish police did not disclose which cryptocurrencies the scammers used but issued a warning to the public not to invest in digital assets.