WPBN: The police have taken into custody a fictitious Uber driver who is accused of stealing more than $300,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from passengers who were unaware of the theft committed.
Nuruhussein Hussein, 40, was taken into custody on Wednesday by law enforcement officers in Scottsdale, Arizona, which is a desert community located east of Phoenix.
According to a statement released by the Scottsdale Police Department, officials arrested Hussein on felony counts of theft, fraud, and money laundering.
The defendant purported to be an Uber driver and picked up passengers who had scheduled a legitimate trip outside of a hotel in Scottsdale between the months of March and December of this year, according to the police, who conducted an operation in conjunction with the field office of the United States Secret Service in Phoenix.
Hussein would then allegedly seek to use the victim’s phone, claiming that he needed to check up instructions or connect to the Uber app. This was according to the police.
“While manipulating the unsuspecting victim’s phone the suspect transferred cryptocurrency from their digital wallet to his digital wallet,” according to police’s statement.
Currently, the investigation is being carried on by both the police and the Secret Service. The suspect was taken into custody and put into the Maricopa County Jail. Two counts of money laundering, two counts of fraudulent schemes, and two counts of theft were brought against him in the federal court system. In court on Wednesday, he was present for a hearing regarding his bond, and he is scheduled to return on December 18th.
On Wednesday, the court heard that he conveyed to one of the alleged victims that they should “chill out or something bad would happen.”
The court ordered him to post a bond of $200,000, and the prosecution informed the judge that the suspect frequently travels to Ethiopia and poses a threat of fleeing the country.
A continual electronic surveillance, a prohibition on any and all internet use, and a requirement to remain in Maricopa County are all included in the terms of the bond.
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Fraud using cryptocurrencies, which is a rapidly expanding and lucrative criminal activity, is a major concern for law enforcement authorities. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2023, individuals from all over the United States disclosed that they had lost a total of $5.6 billion due to this type of fraud.
As a result of the fact that some victims are reluctant to report their experiences to authorities, the actual number is probably many times greater.
In September, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published its inaugural Cryptocurrency Fraud Report, which revealed that individuals aged 60 and older were the source of more than 16,000 reports of cryptocurrency fraud.
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