FinCEN Says Stopping Crypto Scams Means Catching How Customers Fund Them

The most useful fraud signal in a cryptocurrency investment scam may not be the cryptocurrency transaction. It may be the customer’s balance sheet deteriorating in real time.

That is among the key takeaways from a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) analysis released Thursday (Sept. 3), which examined 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025 involving approximately $12.7 billion in suspected digital asset investment scam activity. The FinCEN analysis showed how financial institutions may have an underused advantage against authorized payment scams. They can potentially see a victim financing the fraud before they can prove the ultimate payment is fraudulent.

A retirement account is liquidated. Savings begin disappearing. A home equity line is opened. Personal loans are requested. Money moves between previously quiet accounts. Then comes the wire to a crypto exchange or unfamiliar beneficiary.

Viewed individually, each transaction can look legitimate because the customer authorized it. Viewed as a sequence, the customer can look like they are liquidating their financial life to fund a scam.

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