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Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has named the five countries where he struggles most to assist victims, listing counties like Canada, the UK, and Russia as part of the “bottom five” jurisdictions for crypto-related cases.
In a Tuesday post on his Telegram investigations channel, ZachXBT wrote the counties in order of where he faced the most problems, saying:
“Ranking the bottom 5 jurisdictions for crypto-related victims from my own experience: Nigeria, India, Canada, UK, Russia. If you contact me from them I will likely have to decline formally assisting due to stagnant legal cases.”
He later doubled down on the issue on social platform X, adding that “UK & Canada currently are where cases go to die.”
Crypto fraud numbers in the UK, Canada balloon
According to data from the UK banking industry cited by news publication The Guardian, investment scam losses have surged by 55% in a year within the jurisdiction.
Total funds stolen by fraudsters in the first half of this year reached £629 million, up 3% from the same period last year. Of that, £97.7 million was lost to investment scams alone, averaging over £500,000 every day.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and several banks are warning investors of an explosion in crypto investment fraud perpetrated through cloned websites and celebrity endorsement scams. Despite the awareness, coupled with investigations tracking down the criminals, victims cannot get justice due to a “bureaucratic gridlock.”
In Canada, the Anti-Fraud Centre reports that Canadians lost $224,201,739 to cryptocurrency investment scams in 2024, with $103,172,872 already lost this year alone.
ZachXBT mentioned the country’s handling of the “Crypto King” scandal as an example of how dysfunctional justice systems are in Canada. When a follower asked him about the case, citing the perpetrator’s arrest, the blockchain security sleuth replied:
“You are leaving out the part where those victims took action into their own hands because the legal system failed them. Canada debatably has the highest concentration of cyberfraud in North America, if not the world, which they very rarely prosecute.”
Aiden Pleterski, the self-styled “Crypto King,” was kidnapped and beaten by his victims after they lost millions in his investment scheme. At the time of his kidnapping, Pleterski was several months into bankruptcy proceedings initiated by investors seeking to recover more than $40 million, Cryptopolitan reported.
According to court documents shared by news outlet CBC, only $3 million has been recovered so far for about 160 investors, and Pleterski had spent more than $16 million on personal luxuries.
Trials for two of the men accused in the kidnapping, Akil Heywood and Alfredo Paladino, were set to begin last month, but proceedings were postponed following another defendant’s guilty plea. A third man, Rakeem Henry, is scheduled to stand trial in January.
Many users also shared personal experiences with ZachXBT of being unable to retrieve funds frozen by banks or regulatory agencies.
“I wish people knew how bad it is in India. Bank accounts getting frozen or deleted, money trails completely frozen, the money in my bank, the money I sent to a friend, the money I deposited into my stockbroker’s app, all frozen and so hard to get back,” complained one follower.
ZachXBT turns down invitation for ‘investigators group’
In admiration of his security work, Web3 company Cicada approached Zach publicly on X through a statement-turned invitation, where it claimed “the industry doesn’t have more on-chain investigators with his level of expertise and integrity.”
“It would be amazing if you could start an exclusive bootcamp to train future, well-equipped on-chain investigators. The space would benefit well,” the company wrote.
ZachXBT, however, declined the idea, stating he was not “interested in sharing his edge.”
“If I ever launched a product, it would be targeted to well-capitalized teams and not free for the general public. You can simply try to learn from my posts. If you offer a free service or product, people start having more unreasonable expectations over time. I learned the hard way,” the security analyst surmised.
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