The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized millions of dollars worth of crypto assets from entities in Southeast Asia that allegedly targeted US citizens.
In a new announcement on the social media platform X, the FBI says that they’ve seized $6 million worth of digital assets from Southeast Asian scammers who prey on people in the US using crypto confidence schemes.
Says Chad Yarbrough of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division,
“These types of schemes are devastating, and they’re impacting thousands of Americans every day. The FBI has seen victims lose millions of dollars, take second and third mortgages on their homes, all in the hopes of finding the next big investment opportunity.
The seizure of millions of dollars is proof the FBI will stop at nothing to find these fraudsters who insist on taking advantage of the American public.”
Crypto confidence schemes involve bad actors contacting victims through dating apps, text messages, or professional meet-up groups. These scammers gain their victims’ trust before luring them to deposit their funds into fraudulent crypto websites using promises of bogus returns.
In a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says the scammers would get their victims to deposit funds and create an atmosphere of legitimacy by allowing them to withdraw a small amount of profits to encourage more investing before locking them out of their investments.
Instead of investing the funds as promised, the assets would be moved to a wallet associated with the scammers.
The FBI says it was able to locate “multiple cryptocurrency wallet addresses” that held $6 million worth of victim funds.
As stated by US Attorney Matthew M. Graves,
“In these scams, fraudsters trick US citizens into believing they are transferring funds to cryptocurrency investment opportunities when, in fact, they are just unwittingly turning their money over to the fraudsters.
The fact these fraudsters and their accounts are typically located outside the United States, will not stop us or our partners at the FBI from doing all we can to recover the proceeds of these frauds and to hold the people running them accountable”
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