Pay USDT and we’ll carry out ‘any form of revenge you like,’ say South Korean criminals

South Korean criminals are demanding payment in USDT for executing revenge attacks carried out on behalf of people bearing grudges, a new report claims.

Online brokerages that pay on-demand part-time thugs as little as $300 a month demand USDT payments upfront, reported South Korean media newspaper Cheonji Ilbo, as they believe police find the US dollar-pegged stablecoin “difficult to trace.”

Anonymity-providing technology, such as crypto and encrypted messaging apps, provides a perfect array of tools for people with a thirst for revenge, Oh Yoon-sung, a professor of police administration at Soonchunhyang University, told the newspaper.

The revelations come as police in South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province hunt the masterminds responsible for at least six crypto-powered revenge attacks carried out this year.

Officers say they have arrested all of the people who carried out the attacks, but have yet to close the net on the masterminds who commissioned them. The attacks have seen criminals smear doorways with human faeces, throw food waste in apartment stairways, and distribute slanderous leaflets in victims’ neighbourhoods.

Data leak

The revenge attacks have now spread to Seoul, police said on March 30, where officers in the Yangcheon district arrested several individuals suspected of throwing food waste at an unnamed victim’s door.

A police investigation later revealed a member of the gang suspected of orchestrating the crime had taken a job at an outsourcing firm that works with Baedal Minjok, South Korea’s largest food delivery app.

This allowed the suspect to steal over 1,000 pieces of personal data on potential victims, helping to perpetrate the attack, detectives explained.

Police say they are struggling to cope. While they have succeeded in closing down some prominent revenge-themed Telegram open chat rooms, “dozens of proxy channels” continue to spring up on an almost daily basis, officers explained.

‘Revenge can be yours’

DL News has seen Korean-language posts on X offering a range of illegal revenge-related services. One read: “Revenge can be yours. Contact us today.”

“We will carry out any form of revenge you like,” read another.

Brokers and their hired heavies have become the “contract criminals” of the web3 era, Oh said.

“[People seeking revenge] do not want to get blood on their own hands,” he said. “All parties believe they will not be exposed if they use Telegram, which guarantees anonymity, and cryptocurrencies, which are difficult to monitor.”

Some criminals offer to hold off on carrying out the attacks they’ve been commissioned to carry out in exchange for crypto payment.

Cheonji Ilbo published screenshots of a conversation between investment fraud victims in an open chat room on Telegram.

One of the chat room users announced they had been commissioned to force the chat room’s closure by filling it with pornographic videos and spam before reporting it to Telegram.

This, the user said, would force Telegram to shut the chat room down. The user demanded payment to “prevent the shutdown.”

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.