Cape Town Cracks Down on Crypto Fraud, Police Seize Luxury Cars with Fake License Plates

Odaily Planet Daily News The Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa, Geordin Hill-Lewis, recently participated in a special nighttime police operation targeting individuals who claim to be cryptocurrency and forex traders and drive luxury cars with fake or no license plates. During the operation, police seized a silver Mercedes-AMG GLE, falsely registered as a white BMW, worth over $153,000, and arrested a driver of an unregistered BMW 3-Series. Local officials stated that fraudulent crypto gangs use TikTok to showcase their assets, using luxury cars as status symbols to lure victims into fake investments. A report released in March showed that corporatized scam centers operated by international crime syndicates have formed clusters in Cape Town and Johannesburg, using deepfakes, cloned apps, and fake investment platforms to commit fraud. The related illegal funds are typically laundered through cryptocurrency wallets, money mules, and physical assets like unlicensed high-end vehicles. (Bitcoin.com News).