Efe Nail Saltık 
Chinese police have launched an operation against a gang selling citizens’ identity information for cryptocurrencies totaling $282 million.
Beijing police recently uncovered a series of cases involving the illegal sale of citizen information using cryptocurrency, totaling more than $282 million. More than ten virtual wallets were used for these illegal transactions. These cases involve 15 regions and cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang.
According to Chinese authorities, these cases utilize clandestine and diverse criminal methods and also constitute a complex “series of incidents” ranging from deep web transactions to illegal foreign exchange transactions.
Beijing police had previously received tips that some people were using the “dark web” and cryptocurrency to transfer information and conduct virtual currency transactions, in particular illegally selling various private information of Chinese citizens. Liang Fei, a case officer from the Economic Investigation Unit of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, said that some people used overseas chat software to create multiple groups in which they openly sold citizens’ personal information such as ID numbers, mobile phone numbers, home addresses, etc.
“There are hundreds of members in the group selling information, and hundreds of millions of citizens’ personal information has been sold in the group. The transaction method is strictly limited to cryptocurrencies.”
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