LOS ANGELES
The Department of Justice announced Monday that it has seized virtual currency worth an estimated $112 million linked to cryptocurrency investment scams commonly called “pig butchering.”
Judges in Los Angeles, Arizona, and Idaho authorized seizure warrants for six virtual currency accounts.
In Los Angeles, a judge authorized the seizure of an account containing about $66.4 million in various cryptocurrencies after finding probable cause that the funds were derived from wire fraud schemes.
According to court documents, the six virtual currency accounts were used to launder the proceeds of various cryptocurrency confidence scams.
In these schemes, fraudsters cultivated long-term, online relationships with victims, eventually enticing them to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms.
In reality, the funds sent by victims for these purported investments were funneled to cryptocurrency addresses and accounts controlled by scammers and their co-conspirators.
“The victims in Pig Butchering schemes are referred to as ‘pigs’ by the scammers because the scammers will use elaborate storylines to ‘fatten up’ victims into believing they are in a romantic or otherwise close personal relationship,” according to the affidavit in support of the Los Angeles seizure warrant.
Adding,“once the victim places enough trust in the scammer, the scammer brings the victim into a cryptocurrency investment scheme.”
The scammer attempts to create the appearance of legitimacy by fabricating websites or mobile apps to display a bogus investment portfolio with large returns, the affidavit states.
Authorities executed the Los Angeles seizure warrant in December and received the last cryptocurrency transfer on March 21.
“Using the methods of traditional con artists, high-tech fraudsters have taken advantage of the publicity and hype surrounding cryptocurrency to encourage an untold number of Americans to invest in get-rich-quick schemes,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada.
The affidavit in the Los Angeles seizure warrant discussed a series of cryptocurrency investment scams, one of which targeted a professional woman who was contacted on LinkedIn by a man who used the name “Fei Kuang.”
After learning that the victim already had a small cryptocurrency account, “Fei Kuang” offered to help the victim, eventually convincing her to invest more money and to move her funds to another presumably fraudulent, trading exchange.
When she tried to withdraw her funds, she was told she had to pay a 20% in “taxes.”
When the trading platform continued to demand more money, the woman realized she was the victim of a scam that cost her about $2.5 million, according to officials.
“Transnational criminal organizations are combining confidence scams with technological savvy to swindle Americans out of their hard-earned funds,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
In 2022, investment fraud caused the highest losses of any scam reported by the public to the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3), totaling $3.31 billion.
Frauds involving cryptocurrency, including pig butchering, represented most of these scams, increasing 183% from 2021 to $2.57 billion in reported losses last year.
According to the FBI, the highest number of reports came from victims between the ages of 30 and 49.
In these schemes, often called “Sha Zhu Pan,” a Chinese phrase that loosely translates to “pig butchering,” scammers often target their victims through social networking and online communications platforms, dating websites, and phone calls and text messages that are meant to appear to have been misdialed.
After gaining the trust of their victims – sometimes over months – scammers eventually introduce the idea of trading in cryptocurrency.
They then direct victims to cryptocurrency investment platforms or to co-conspirators posing as investment advisors or customer service representatives.
Scammers control websites built to look like legitimate trading platforms, applications that victims download onto their phones, or malicious smart contracts accessed through cryptocurrency wallet software.
Once victims make an initial “investment,” the platforms purport to show substantial gains.
Sometimes, victims can withdraw some of these initial gains to engender trust in the scheme further.
It is not until a large investment is made that victims find that they cannot withdraw their funds.
Even when a victim is denied access to their funds, the fraud is often not over.
Scammers request additional investments, taxes, or fees, promising these payments will allow victims access to their accounts.
These scam operations often continue to steal from their victims and do not stop until they have deprived victims of any remaining savings.
The FBI Phoenix Division is investigating the matter that resulted in seizures announced Monday.
If you or someone you know is a victim, visit www.fbi.gov/cryptoguard, contact your local FBI field office (the Los Angeles Field Office can be reached at 310-477-6565), call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or report it to IC3.gov.
In your complaint, please reference “Pig Butchering PSA.”
Include as much information as possible in your complaint, including names of investment platforms, cryptocurrency addresses and transaction hashes, bank account information, and names and contact information of suspected scammers. Maintained copies of all communications with scammers and records of financial transactions.