Dutch Police Makes Historic Arrest, Seizes NFTs From Criminals

Police cybercrime investigators in Oost-Nederland retrieved cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as part of their investigation into the widespread trade in private data.

That case, announced earlier this month, led to the arrests of a 19-year-old man from Hilversum and a 23-year-old man from Weesp. Both of them were arrested in their homes about two weeks ago. In a statement, the police said the arrest marks the first time that a Dutch investigative service seized NFTs.

NFTs are unique, unable to be copied, and often used as digital assets representing ownership rights over a real-world asset. They can represent a form of ownership over the physical property but are often used for intellectual property, such as digital art, items in video games, images from movies, or pieces of music.

The Police said in a statement:

A non-fungible token is an individual, unique, digital record on a blockchain. NFTs are particularly popular as ‘digital art’, the most famous of which are images of monkeys, cats, or punks. These pictures are unique and, in some cases, worth millions of euros.

“Because NFTs represent value, they can be taken as the proceeds from criminal offenses, as normally happens with expensive cars or large sums of cash, as an example,” the police added.

The two people arrested in the case were recognized through messages in a chat service. According to the police, the private data at the center of the investigation is often used in cyber scams, like identity fraud, bank helpdesk cons, friend-in-need schemes, and even stalking.