USDT, not BTC, is the biggest fraud tool on the internet, says China

China’s Ministry of Public Security held a press conference to address some of the Internet-based financial security issues that are taking place in the country. The press conference focused mainly on the ministry’s activities since 2021 in combating the financial fraud that has plagued its internet space.

USDT is the biggest fraud tool on the internet

Addressing the public, a ministry spokesperson identified the USDT stablecoin as the most common tool adopted by internet fraud practitioners.

According to the ministry’s findings, USDT and not BTC is the main tool used by fraudsters.

Also according to the spokesperson, a large number of benchmarking platforms and digital currency are used for money laundering, with USDT (Tether) being the most common and most serious of them.

Although fraudsters carry out their crimes using various cryptocurrencies, in the end, they end up using USDT as a source of liquidity to “hold and move the value” of their crimes.

During the event, the ministry also highlighted that China’s guidelines to ban cryptocurrencies have shown effectiveness.

In addition, the study proving the use of USDT by scammers shows how China was right in its policy against cryptocurrencies.

The ministry also highlighted the supposed efficiency of the guidelines announced last year by the ruling party’s secretary general, Xi Jinping, which marked the beginning of the crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry, the impact of which was felt in China and around the world.

The guidelines and instructions were people-centered and were judiciously implemented by government agencies.

“This has resulted in heavy blows against practitioners of Internet crime and fraud in the Chinese region. Furthermore, it effectively restricted the activities of internet fraudsters that were on the rise,” the Ministry stated.

According to data released by the ministry, since June 2021 there has been a steady drop in the number of fraud cases.

“To achieve these milestones, a high-pressure operation was initiated using various agencies of the Ministry of Public Security. In all, the ministry organized and launched 150 cluster campaigns to effectively fight and prevent crime across the country. This allowed breaking a total of 394,000 Internet fraud cases last year, with 634,000 criminals arrested during the same period. In other words, this reflects an increase of 28.5% and 76.6% year-on-year, respectively”, he pointed out.

Finally, they revealed that, in collaboration with the National Immigration Department, the Ministry of Public Security also organized a special operation called “cutting the flow”.

This led to the destruction of 12,000 criminal gangs that left the country illegally. Meanwhile, 51,000 smuggling suspects were arrested.