“Unveiling the Hidden Profits of ‘Creative Secret Room’: How Many People Are Profiting from the Taiwanese Version of N Room?”
Recently, the revelation that Taiwanese celebrity Huang Zijiao was a senior member of the voyeur forum ‘Creative Secret Room’ and possessed a large amount of illicit footage of underage individuals sparked public outrage. The Taipei District Prosecutors Office charged him with the crime of possessing juvenile sexual images and granted him deferred prosecution.
Despite the public outcry and the efforts of digital authorities to block the domain of ‘Creative Secret Room’ based on the regulations of the Child and Juvenile Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act and the Sexual Assault Prevention and Control Act, there are still users who continue to pay for subscriptions. However, even if the Taiwanese government successfully shuts down the website, individuals with ulterior motives can still bypass the domain block through VPNs, leaving law enforcement agencies powerless against these overseas cybercrimes. Those who profit from voyeurism and the exploitation of minors continue to wreak havoc on the internet, taking advantage of the fact that they are difficult to catch and shut down completely.
How many people have paid to become members of ‘Creative Secret Room’? After the wallet of ‘Creative Secret Room’ receives payments, where does the money go?
To accurately identify the recipients of payments behind ‘Creative Secret Room,’ the Taiwanese exchange XREX recently released a report. By analyzing the four encrypted wallet addresses previously used by ‘Creative Secret Room,’ XREX conducted a blockchain investigation to trace the flow of funds and uncover the beneficiaries and the destination of the funds.
According to the report, the total amount of payments received by the four wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room’ amounted to 896,000 USDT, equivalent to approximately 28.91 million New Taiwan Dollars. Among them, the wallet with the highest amount of payments received by ‘Creative Secret Room’ is the custody wallet “TNFw********************4” located at the Binance exchange.
This wallet has been receiving funds from ‘Creative Secret Room’ since December 5, 2021, and has received payments 73 times, accumulating over 66,000 USDT, worth more than 2 million New Taiwan Dollars. By using the wallet database tool OKLink, it was discovered that this wallet has been active for three years. Observing its fund sources using the MistTrack tool, it is evident that all five wallets are related to ‘Creative Secret Room.’ This wallet continues to be frequently used and remains active.
Who is the holder behind the wallet? Unveiling the Hidden Figures
Since token transfers on the blockchain require the payment of transaction fees (Gas Fees), by tracking the source of these Gas Fees, it is possible to establish the connection between wallets and obtain information about their actual holders.
Using the visualization tool Arkham, XREX generated a relationship graph that revealed a common source of TRON tokens (TRX) among the four wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room,’ indicating a high possibility that these four wallets are owned by the same person or group.
In the graph, it can be observed that the fourth wallet of ‘Creative Secret Room,’ “TA2G85LLXqtbcMwwZUKn4gDdQ9EkoHRp8V,” received a deposit of 5,066 TRX from the MEXC exchange. With this transaction information, law enforcement agencies can request the real identity verification information of the users from the MEXC exchange and trace the true identity of the operator behind it.
Additionally, according to the graph generated by the visualization tool Bitquery, it can be observed that ‘Creative Secret Room’ has a “layered transfer” relationship in the transfer of TRX tokens, where some wallets receive TRX and immediately transfer it out within a short period of time. This “quick in, quick out” behavior is less common in regular transactions, making it one of the characteristics used to identify abnormal transactions.
XREX exchange pointed out that many TRX tokens used to pay Gas Fees were transferred from Binance exchange to decentralized “non-custodial wallets” before being transferred into the first wallet of ‘Creative Secret Room.’ Therefore, as long as law enforcement agencies obtain relevant real-name verification information from the Binance exchange, they can determine who provided the TRX fees required for transferring funds for ‘Creative Secret Room.’
Who is profiting from ‘Creative Secret Room’?
Who are the individuals profiting from the sale of illegal voyeuristic and exploitative videos? After the four payment wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room’ receive funds, they are sent to other wallets. By tracking the destination of the USDT received by ‘Creative Secret Room,’ it is possible to identify the main beneficiaries.
XREX speculates in the report that these individuals could be website administrators, staff members, video providers, operators, equipment purchasers, or even refunds to members. However, their specific identities are still unclear and require further investigation by law enforcement agencies.
Centralized exchanges, both domestic and international, require user real-name verification before opening accounts. Therefore, by finding the “custodial wallets” of centralized exchanges, it is possible to uncover the group behind ‘Creative Secret Room.’
XREX exchange, through the visualization tool Bitquery, compiled a list of which wallets have upstream and downstream relationships with the four wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room’ and discovered that three out of the four payment wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room’ have transferred substantial funds to a single wallet.
By using the blockchain analysis tool MistTrack to track the flow of funds in the wallets of ‘Creative Secret Room,’ it is possible to identify the potential main beneficiaries.
The report by Taiwanese exchange XREX once again demonstrates its active participation and efforts in combating cybercrimes. By tracing the encrypted wallet addresses, the report exposes the chain of interests behind ‘Creative Secret Room’ in order to more accurately combat these criminal activities.
However, blockchain investigations are only part of the solution, and more effort and innovative solutions are needed to counter techniques such as VPNs that bypass blocking.
In the future, it will require the joint efforts of the government, businesses, and society as a whole to effectively protect internet users, combat cybercrimes, and establish a safer online environment.