FOI 866/24 Stolen Cryptocurrency
Dear Sir/Madam,
Enquiry Reference: 866- 24
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
I would be grateful if you could provide the following details for the period from 1st January 2023 to 31st July 2024:
- The total number of reported cases involving stolen cryptocurrency during this period (including but not limited to funds lost in hacks, fraud, scams).
Please include the total number of cases and the total value of the stolen cryptocurrencies (at the time of theft).
Please also break down the cases by their current status.
For closed cases, specify how many were closed due to lack of jurisdiction/referred to another police force, closed due to solving the crime being unlikely, closed due to lack of police resources, and closed due to crime not being serious enough.
- Of all reported cases, how many involved successfully tracing stolen funds to/through a cryptocurrency exchange or a digital wallet hosted by a cryptocurrency exchange?
(An exchange is defined as a place where users can buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency, for example Binance or Coinbase.)
- Of these cases involving exchanges, how many resulted in an officer attempting to contact the exchange?
In cases where an exchange was contacted, did they cooperate with law enforcement?
Cooperation is here defined as:
Acknowledgment and timely response: The exchange acknowledges the request from law enforcement and responds within a reasonable time frame.
Compliance with requests: The exchange complies with lawful requests, such as providing transaction data, account information, or assisting in identifying the individual(s) behind the transactions.
Freezing or restricting funds: The exchange takes appropriate action to freeze or restrict access to stolen funds when requested, in accordance with legal requirements.
- Please provide a list of the names of exchanges that either did not respond to requests or did not cooperate with law enforcement as per the above criteria.
Answer to the above questions.
Having made enquiries with the Force Cyber Crime Unit these crimes are not accurately recorded with Cleveland Police. All reports of Cybercrime and Fraud are directed to Action Fraud to collate statistics and forward on where appropriate.
To assist you in your FOI the below link if from the Action Fraud website has been provided as a first point of reference.
www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/cryptocurrency
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker