Police seized multiple non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the first time in an investigation into private data trading. It often concerns digital works of art, says a spokesperson.
Earlier this month, a 23-year-old man from Weesp and a 19-year-old man from Hilversum were arrested in the investigation, both in their homes. They are suspected of large-scale trading of private information (leads) that can be used in various scams, such as bank help desk fraud.
NFTs are unique digital certificates of ownership. Those certificates are linked to a digital object such as an image, artwork or a piece of music. “Because NFTs represent a value, they can be taken as the proceeds of criminal offenses, as is normally the case with expensive cars or large sums of cash,” the police explained.
The police do not know exactly what the seized NFTs are worth. “If the judge decides that we can auction them, then it will become clear what they will yield. Now we do not dare to estimate that because the value fluctuates greatly,” says a spokesperson.
How do you seize NFTs?
The police do not want to reveal how the digital certificates were seized. Tech expert Jarno Duursma suspects that the police obtained the personal security code of the digital crypto wallets of the suspects through a court order. Digital crypto wallets are computer programs that store unique access codes for NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
Another possibility is that the police ordered platforms on which NFTs are traded to seize the copies owned by the suspects. But Duursma thinks that the chance is smaller.
Digital assets are increasingly being seized in investigations into criminal money. Last year, a total of nearly 35 million euros worth of digital currency was seized, according to figures from the Prosecution† In 2019 that was still about 1 million euros.
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