After the Telegram chat group "Room N" filmed sexual exploitation videos targeting women and minors, and used cryptocurrency to charge users to spread related videos, the South Korean police issued official letters to domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to investigate the relevant members. list. The types of cryptocurrencies accepted in Room N include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero.

Send an official letter to the four major domestic exchanges, requesting cooperation in the investigation

On March 24, Bithumb and other domestic cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea stated that the exchange had received an official letter from the police requesting cooperation in the investigation of the Telegram "doctor chat group" incident, and had begun to investigate the list of relevant members. Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and other four exchanges in South Korea that implement real-name verification deposit and withdrawal transactions have all received official letters from the police. A person from Bithumb said, “We are currently actively cooperating with the police investigation,” but “it is estimated that many users buy cryptocurrencies through small and medium-sized exchanges, and we should not find too many people.”

Cooperate with the exchange to track the account address of Bitcoin and Ethereum

The cryptocurrencies used by Room N to pay group membership fees include Bitcoin (BTC), Monero (XMR), and Ethereum (ETH). Bitcoin and Ethereum can reversely trace the transaction records, lock the account numbers of the wallets of both parties to the transaction, and thus find out the identities of both parties to the transaction. According to an exchange official who received an official letter from the police, the police used the wallet address of the suspect "Doctor" in room N to lock the exchange used by the suspect through reverse tracking, and then sent a request to cooperate with the investigation. official letter.

It is understood that there are more than 100 users who use Monero to pay the membership fee. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Monero is relatively anonymous and cannot track the information of both parties to the transaction. Therefore, the payment method required by Room N from users is mainly Monero. Among Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, only Bithumb and Huobi Korea have opened Monero trading. Bithumb stated that it is cooperating with the police investigation, and Huobi Korea stated that it has not received relevant official letters.

The B exchange in the Monero purchase point was seized by the police for investigation

The survey shows that among the paid users in the chat group, some users who are not familiar with cryptocurrency transactions mainly conduct transactions through the cryptocurrency intermediary company "B Exchange". Because the suspect once suggested that some fee-paying users buy Monero through B Exchange to pay the membership fee. In this regard, the police conducted a seizure and search on B Exchange on March 20 and obtained more than 2,000 related transaction records. The police said, “In order to contact Exchange B and understand the progress of the transaction, the relevant users may have left their real phone numbers. These people are likely to save the sexual exploitation video content shot by the suspect.”

Overseas exchanges and personal wallet transactions are difficult to track

JOIND Won Jaeyeon reporter won.jaeyeon@joongang.co.kr

JOIND Won Jaeyeon reporter won.jaeyeon@joongang.co.kr