A new federal team is now working to stop large crypto scams coming out of Southeast Asia. The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the “Scam Center Strike Force,” saying the goal is to protect Americans who are losing money to fake crypto investments.
The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in Washington. Leaders from the DOJ, FBI, and Secret Service joined her. They all said the same thing: these scams are growing fast, and the losses are hitting regular people.
Officials say the scams are mostly run by Chinese criminal groups. They use social media and text messages to reach victims in the U.S. The scam usually starts with friendly contact. Then the criminals convince victims to invest real crypto. After that, they push the victims to move the funds into fake platforms that look legitimate. Once the money moves in, it disappears into wallets outside U.S. control.
Many of these operations sit inside compounds in Southeast Asia. Workers inside them are often trafficking victims. They are forced to message Americans every day. Some compounds run on such a large scale that the scam income, according to reports, reaches levels close to half of a country’s GDP. U.S. officials say Americans lose nearly $10 billion each year from these schemes.
Pirro said her office has the authority to charge foreign suspects and seize property overseas. She also asked U.S. technology companies to take part. Her message was clear: these scams rely on U.S. infrastructure, and that needs to change.
The FBI said the impact on families is long-lasting. Many victims lose their entire savings. The Secret Service said they have seen a sharp rise in crypto fraud since 2019 and heard from about 3,000 victims this year alone.
The Strike Force combines the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, Treasury, State Department, and other agencies. Teams are now targeting major scam sites in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and other parts of the region. They are going after the leaders, the websites, and even the internet infrastructure used to run the scams.
The government says the team has already seized more than $400 million in crypto linked to these fraud rings. Another $80 million is now in forfeiture proceedings.
One team in Burma seized websites used to trick Americans. Another operation aims to seize satellite terminals that kept scam sites online. The Treasury Department also added the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and related groups to the sanctions list.
Other Strike Force teams worked with Indonesian police on a network in Bali. That investigation helped bring charges against 38 suspects.
Agents are also working inside Thailand with local police to track scam compounds, including a well-known site called KK Park.
Officials say they want to stop the scams, recover stolen funds, and teach people how to spot suspicious messages. The Strike Force plans to keep pushing until they cut off access from these networks to U.S. users.
Secretservice.gov’s News Release:
Anyone who believes they lost money to a Southeast Asian crypto scam can file a report at ic3.gov.
