After their recent research, one of the reputable threat intelligence companies, Recorded Future, has issued a statement that sounds more like a warning to the rest of the world. In the latest report, the company says that the cybercrime industry has developed two methods for escaping sanctions. They disclosed it as a mail forwarding service (also known as reshippers) and cryptocurrency virtual credit card.
Investigations conducted on the validity of this claim revealed that sellers of these tools, often seen on the dark web marketplace, could testify to the effectiveness of these methods. It was also gathered that some of these sellers could be found on Telegram, where they create channels for that specific purpose. Those indicted channels these sellers use are said to contain reviews from buyers who have tested this unique product.
While exposing the activities of these new strange methods, they have also mentioned Russia’s involvement. In what appears to be a rare exposition, Recorded Future claims that Russians have now taken advantage of this service to evade western sanctions. It was also gathered that they (Russians) also integrate cryptocurrency to complete the workings of this service.
Russians Leverage The Use Of Cryptocurrency
Experts have also disclosed that despite leveraging virtually any service that promises to evade western sanctions, the majority of them now depend on cryptocurrency to source their daily goods and services from overseas. And as a means of authentication, the intelligence company said prospects do not need identification verification to obtain a virtual cryptocurrency card.
To prove this claim, they actually went ahead and obtained one without going through this process. In an interview with Wally Adeyemo of United States Banks, Treasury Deputy Secretary, while talking to CNBC, said that they are working on reaching out to those cryptocurrency exchanges who are helping Russians either by means of whatever tool they got from the dark web to escape sanctions.
Adeyemo then later issued a warning saying that firms like this would be “held accountable.” Also, in the statement, Recorded Future suggested that using virtual crypto credit cards to escape sanctions can be avoided if companies work on augmenting their KYC and anti-money laundering verification procedures.
