US expands global crackdown on crypto scam centres

Six charged over a Madagascar operation that used fake dating profiles of beautiful women to steal cryptocurrency.

US prosecutors are extending their campaign against international cryptocurrency fraud to Africa and Europe as criminal organisations move their operations beyond Southeast Asia, where police raids have disrupted the sprawling scam centres responsible for stealing billions of dollars from unsuspecting investors. Announcing the expansion yesterday (27 October), US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force had frozen more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency, seized 700 fraudulent investment websites and helped disrupt millions of online scam accounts.

The announcement coincided with the unsealing of criminal charges against six people accused of running a scam operation in Madagascar, where workers allegedly posed as beautiful women on dating websites before persuading their victims to connect cryptocurrency wallets to fraudulent investment platforms.

“Chinese TCOs [transnational criminal organisations] are sending scammers into your dating network, your social network, and your messaging applications, all to steal Main Street America’s bank accounts,” Pirro said.