Cyprus police launch investigation into €381,653 stolen from crypto wallet

Police in Cyprus are investigating the theft of digital assets from a crypto wallet after a report by a 48-year-old man. The official complaint, which was filed by the man on July 26, claimed that digital assets worth €381,653 were stolen from his wallet.

The complaint filed at the cybercrime division of the Cyprus police noted that the incident happened on June 11. The man claimed that unknown criminals gained unauthorized entry into his wallet, stealing his digital assets in the process.

The hackers exploited a key weakness, gaining the password to the breached wallet from his email account, which had also been hacked in the past. Once they gained access to the digital assets, they moved all of them to a different digital asset.

Cyprus police kickstart investigations into crypto theft

Cyprus police have mentioned that the investigation will be very hard, and recovering the digital assets might be extremely difficult. The police say this case highlights a growing concern that has rocked Cyprus and the global crypto community. There has been a rise in cyberattacks targeting personal digital assets. These criminals target victims under the guise of either offering help or selling a service.

Analysts have also noted that while digital assets offer privacy and decentralization, they also carry risks without proper security. For instance, users are being advised to write down their passwords and seed phrases offline. This way, they are safe, even when their devices are hacked.

In response to the incident, the Cyprus police have issued a public advisory to individuals dealing in digital assets, urging them to take steps to secure their digital properties.

Authorities have also recommended the use of secure digital wallets with advanced safety measures to help combat this menace. In addition, traders and enthusiasts are urged to only carry out transactions on trusted platforms, drumming up the need for two-factor authentication as a requirement to carry out transactions on platforms. The public has also been warned not to open suspicious links or download untrustworthy applications.

Some of these scammers create applications and websites to mirror the original platforms. The cybercrime division of the Cyprus police says it will continue to investigate the case and has urged anyone with information that can help them to come forward.

Fraudsters increase activities as total scam losses hit $2.1 billion

Meanwhile, scammers and fraudsters are now taking advantage of the recent crypto activities to increase their attacks. Losses to crypto scams hit a new record of $2.1 billion in the first half of 2025, eclipsing the previous record of $2 billion set in 2022, and almost equaling the entire losses witnessed in 2024.

In a statement by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, scammers have now resorted to impersonating the official YouTube account of Ripple in an attempt to con users.

This is not the first time that the issue has happened to Ripple, as the crypto firm sued YouTube over impersonators in April 2021. The company sought damages from the video-sharing platform, accusing it of profiting from the activities of these scammers. However, Ripple dropped the lawsuit in March 2021, claiming that it had come to a peaceful resolution with YouTube and that the pair had agreed to combat scams together.

Ripple isn’t the only firm being targeted by impersonators, as the criminals have continued to work overtime to steal from unsuspecting users. A recent post by security firm Scam Sniffer mentioned that it had found direct Google searches related to crypto firms showed scam ads at the top of the results. “Pro tip for DeFi users: Stop using Google search for crypto sites unless you enjoy playing Russian roulette with your wallet!” Scam Sniffer said.