According to a United Nations (UN) assessment, Telegram has turned into a sanctuary for criminal networks in Southeast Asia, assisting them in trading hacked data, obtaining fraud tools, and utilizing cryptocurrency to launder stolen assets.
The UN claims that the end-to-end encrypted app has radically altered the way organized crime functions, as reported by Reuters. It discovered that Southeast Asian criminal organizations, including Chinese syndicates, allegedly earn between $27.4 billion and $36.5 billion a year.
Additionally, it has been revealed that money laundering services are being advertised on the app by unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges. “We move three million USDT stolen from overseas per day,” according to one advertisement that the UN spotted.
Telegram is used by criminal networks to purchase malware intended to steal money and exchange stolen personal data, such as passwords and credit card numbers. It was also discovered that at least ten companies selling deepfake software were marketing to criminals.
Tether (USDT) has been referred to by the UN as the preferred stablecoin for Asian criminal networks. In fact, an indictment filed earlier this year revealed that around $35.4 million had been taken from victims of a pig butchering scam and exchanged for USDT.
According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), these illegal businesses make between $27.4 billion and $36.5 billion annually. According to the study, Telegram has altered the landscape of organized crime by giving syndicates less oversight.
Placing Pavel Durov under arrest
The problem grew worse in August after Pavel Durov, the inventor of Telegram, was arrested in Paris. He is facing severe charges for using the platform to support a variety of illegal activities, including child exploitation and drug trafficking.
In addition to its responsibilities to comply with court orders, the company shares user data with authorities in an effort to enhance user privacy, according to Durov. The role that tech companies should play in monitoring illicit activities occurring on their networks has come up for discussion since Durov’s arrest. Much discussion surrounds the proper ratio of user privacy to public safety.
Via the network, criminals sell malware and deepfake software, which they then use to trade passwords and private data, such as credit card numbers, in order to perpetrate fraud. One ad claimed that they transfer $3 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency every day, which should give you a sense of the scale of these activities.
The situation has become more complex due to the increasing number of unlicensed bitcoin exchanges on Telegram. These exchanges give criminals the means to easily transfer illicit funds. Tether (USDT) has been designated by the UNODC as the
An underground banking organization that was accused of using USDT to facilitate over $2 billion in illegal transactions was also eliminated by Chinese police.
Pavel Durov, the inventor of Telegram, was detained in August and accused of enabling the platform to support illegal transactions, drug trafficking, and child sex photos.
The most recent conclusions from the UN have important ramifications. Benedikt Hofmann, the UNODC’s deputy representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, claims that Telegram provides the criminals with a welcoming environment. In other words, because customer data may be readily used for fraud or other illegal activities, it is more vulnerable than ever before.
Significantly, the investigation showed that these crime syndicates were driven to develop further by the money they made from their activities. These days, they use cutting-edge technologies like deepfakes and artificial intelligence in their crimes, which makes it extremely difficult to find them.
It has been determined that more than ten providers of deepfake software target criminal groups that engage in cyber-enabled fraud.
Since then, Durov has made a number of platform modifications, including removing the “people nearby” feature and deleting any mentions in the FAQ about private chats being safeguarded.
Bitcoin market trends