Thai Police Bust $15M Scam Ring Targeting Koreans in Crypto, Romance, Lottery Fraud

Thai authorities have dismantled a $15 million scam ring accused of targeting over 870 South Koreans through an elaborate network of crypto, romance, and fake lottery schemes.

Key Takeaways:

• Thai and South Korean police arrested 33 members of a $15M scam ring targeting over 870 South Koreans.
• The group used a mix of crypto fraud, romance scams, and fake lottery schemes to deceive victims.
• Funds were laundered through prepaid cards, OTC brokers, and micro-transactions coordinated via encrypted apps.

The group, operating under the name “Lungo Company,” was described by investigators as a rare example of “multi-layered laundering” that blended several forms of fraud to obscure its trail.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police announced the arrest of 25 suspects connected to the group, while Thai police apprehended the ringleader and eight core members.

All nine are currently in custody in Thailand and awaiting extradition to South Korea.

Unlike previous fraud operations that typically used a single method, Lungo Company employed a wide range of tactics.

Victims were tricked into sending funds via fake compensation offers for data breaches, romance scams, or by being led to invest in worthless cryptocurrencies through fraudulent platforms.

“This group used multiple tactics in a systematic way,” a police official said. “It wasn’t a one-dimensional scam—it was structured and layered.”

The group’s laundering playbook also likely included prepaid cards, casino cash-outs, and splitting transactions into micro-amounts to evade detection systems.

For final liquidation, they relied on high-volume OTC brokers across Southeast Asia, coordinated through encrypted apps like Telegram and WeChat.

The case comes weeks after Seoul police dismantled another international cybercrime ring that stole $28.1 million from South Korean elites, including celebrities and executives, by hacking into financial and crypto accounts.

A previously undisclosed hack from December 2020 has now been confirmed as the largest crypto theft ever, with 127,426 BTC, worth $3.5 billion then and nearly $14.5 billion today, stolen from Chinese mining pool LuBian.

The breach, uncovered by Arkham Intelligence, exploited weaknesses in LuBian’s private key generation system.

BREAKING: ARKHAM UNCOVERS $3.5B HEIST – THE LARGEST EVER

LuBian was a Chinese mining pool with facilities in China & Iran. Based on analysis of on-chain data, it appears that 127,426 BTC was stolen from LuBian in December 2020, worth $3.5 billion at the time and now worth… pic.twitter.com/PnIOKgMt0i

LuBian had emerged rapidly in 2020 as one of the top Bitcoin mining pools, branding itself as a safe and high-yield platform.

By early 2021, the pool vanished without explanation, leading to speculation of regulatory shutdown or privatization. Arkham’s findings point to a dramatic hack as the cause.

The majority of LuBian’s BTC, over 90%, was drained in a single day, followed by additional losses the next day via Bitcoin and USDT transfers on the Omni layer.

The stolen coins have remained dormant since July 2024. LuBian attempted to contact the thief via Bitcoin’s OP_RETURN function, offering a reward.

While Mt. Gox’s collapse involved more BTC in total, the LuBian incident marks the largest confirmed crypto heist in terms of value at the time it occurred. The attacker’s identity remains unknown, and the stolen assets have yet to surface.

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