PRACTICAL 1

On March 18, 2025, a victim was contacted by scammer advising that she had an arrest warrant out for failing to appear for jury duty on multiple occasions. The scammer advised the victim to clear the arrest warrant, she needed to pay a fine of $25,000 in Bitcoin. The victim feared being arrested and agreed to cooperate. The scammer told the victim to travel to a Bitcoin ATM and send the payment to the following Bitcoin wallet:

            bc1qseczzyj03n02vh7e9kqtlas22qnx4xm5w99xzr

            bc1qaw489y30vt7efunfaupy8d52k78y60flh7hfnl

On March 18, 2025 the victim traveled to a Bitcoin ATM and conducted sent approximately $8000 to one address provided by the scammer and she sent approximately $17,400 to the other address provided by the scammer.

Based on this information, answer the following questions using an advanced blockchain analytical tool: (NOTE – CT PRO USE THE TRACER FEATURE ONLY AND ADD BOTH ADDRESS TO A SINGLE GRAPH.  SET A DATE FILTER OF         MARCH 18 - 19, 2025

1. Identify the exact amount of Bitcoin sent in each transaction.

       2. On March 19, 2025 the target addresses engage in a wallet hop. Using the direct-trace method, trace the movement              of the BTC and attempt to identify a potential exchange used to cash out the cryptocurrency. 

(NOTE – ALL TRANSACTIONS HOPS OCCURRED ON MARCH 19, 2025)

Document the last four of the transaction hash, the target address, and the exchange deposit address that you would use to prepare a legal process to the exchange for account information. Ensure that you can articulate exactly why you believe there is probable cause that the victim's cryptocurrency was sent to the exchange that you identified.

NOTE – CT Pro – Once the exchange has been identified, go back and analyze the two initial suspect wallets and use the BOT TRACE feature to determine if any additional exchanges are identified.