scam

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced the seizure of over $61 million in USDT. These funds were traced to cryptocurrency addresses associated with "pig butchering" cryptocurrency investment scams.The investigation revealed that criminals often gain victims' trust under the pretense of establishing romantic relationships, then claim to have professional skills in generating high profits through cryptocurrency trading, guiding victims to use fake trading platforms that mimic legitimate ones. These platforms showcase fictitious high-return portfolios to entice victims to increase their investments. When victims attempt to withdraw funds, the scammers further extract money under the pretext of needing to pay "taxes" or "fees."

According to reports from the WeChat public account "Singapore All-in-One," a Chinese suspect involved in fraud through a cryptocurrency platform was recently arrested in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. The suspect, nicknamed "Duan Zong," is related to the BHE Exchange cryptocurrency fraud case.BHE Exchange had issued a token called DDO, promising investors an annual return of 6% and a 20-fold increase within ten years, attracting around 20,000 investors. The platform suddenly shut down, and investors were unable to withdraw their funds, resulting in a loss of approximately $128 million (about 900 million RMB). The suspect fled China in 2024 and settled in Thailand, frequently changing residences to evade capture. Currently, the Thai authorities have revoked his residence permit and will deport him back to China for further investigation and prosecution.

According to The Block, Australian police have charged a 42-year-old man with operating a cryptocurrency investment scam that defrauded over 190 elderly and vulnerable individuals of a total of 5 million AUD (approximately 35 million USD). The man has been granted conditional bail and is set to appear in Burwood Local Court on March 17.According to a police statement, the cybercrime unit Strike Force Resaca executed search warrants in Strathfield and Cammeray on Friday morning, seizing electronic devices and documents related to the case. At the Strathfield residence, police arrested the 42-year-old suspect and charged him with "dealing with the proceeds of crime," involving money laundering through an online platform. A second man, aged 36, was arrested in Cammeray and has been released pending further investigation.The investigation revealed that since November 2025, victims were contacted via social media by individuals claiming to be investment advisors, who guided them to deposit funds into a digital currency trading platform called "NEXOpayment." Victims believed they were purchasing cryptocurrencies, stocks, or other legitimate investment products, but the funds were actually transferred multiple times into different crypto wallets and exchanges, displaying a typical money laundering pattern.

Geoffrey K. Auyeung, a 47-year-old resident of Newcastle, Washington, pleaded guilty to participating in a money laundering conspiracy on February 20, 2026, in the U.S. District Court in Seattle.Auyeung set up nine fake companies, using investments in the oil and gas industry as a guise to defraud victims, transferring approximately $97.1 million in scam proceeds into 81 bank accounts and 19 cryptocurrency accounts under his control, which were then quickly moved to accounts controlled by co-conspirators in Russia and Nigeria.Investigations revealed that Auyeung profited at least $4.07 million from the scheme. Under the plea agreement, he will pay $24.7 million in restitution and forfeit approximately $10.1 million in assets. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 63 months in prison, with the final sentencing scheduled for May 12, 2026.

According to the official website of the U.S. Department of Justice, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced that a Chinese national, Fei Liao, has been sentenced to federal prison for participating in the laundering of funds obtained from a cryptocurrency investment scam. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and was sentenced to 40 months in prison by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker in 2026.Liao was also ordered to forfeit over $2.3 million in seized funds and to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution to victims. The case was announced by U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs for the Eastern District of Texas and was investigated by the Tyler branch of the United States Secret Service, with federal prosecutor Robert Austin Wells handling the prosecution. Court documents show that Liao assisted in laundering funds from "Pig Butchering" and other cryptocurrency investment scams by setting up shell companies and bank accounts with others.Such scams typically contact victims through social media, dating platforms, or unsolicited phone calls, establishing a trust relationship before inducing them to invest in cryptocurrency. After victims transfer funds to accounts controlled by the scammers, the fraudulent platform displays high returns, encouraging further investment, ultimately leading to victims being unable to withdraw funds and suffering significant losses.Law enforcement agencies remind individuals that if they encounter similar scams, they can report them to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and provide as much information as possible, including the name of the investment platform, cryptocurrency addresses, transaction hashes, bank account information, and contact details of the suspects, while also retaining communications and transfer records with the scammers.

Bubblemaps reveals that Hayden Davis, the key figure behind the LIBRA token scam, is actually the second-largest investor in the Pump.fun private round, having invested a total of 50 million USDC, and sold at a total price of 65 million dollars on the first day of listing. Most people remember that Pump.fun raised 500 million dollars in a public offering in July 2025, but few recall that they also conducted a private financing round with several undisclosed investors.After investing 50 million dollars, Hayden Davis's active address received 12.5 billion tokens when the PUMP token was launched, valued at 73 million dollars, with expected earnings of 15 million dollars. This address had been previously identified, but its actual owner has only been confirmed now. It is still unclear whether Pump.fun's officials are aware of this, but the address is clearly linked to Hayden Davis on-chain and is interconnected in various ways.

According to Cointelegraph citing @web3_antvirus, an address poisoning scam resulted in a victim losing $599,000 USDT. The victim sent funds to a fake address copied from transaction records. The attacker embedded the fake address through a small transfer, mixing it with legitimate transaction records. The victim then copied the address and sent funds to the attacker.

According to Bleepingcomputer, Trezor and Ledger users have fallen victim to physical letter scams, where fraudsters impersonate official organizations to lure users into scanning QR codes that lead to phishing websites, and deceive them into providing their recovery phrases under the pretext of "identity verification checks" and "transaction checks," thereby facilitating the theft of cryptocurrency assets.

According to Web3 Antivirus monitoring, a poisoning incident involving a new address resulted in a loss of $354,000 USDT.The victim (0xa0c7...0e73) copied a similar address from the transaction records and sent funds to the scam copy.

According to Bubblemaps monitoring, the user Beaver, who recently won the $1 million article contest on platform X, has participated in a pump-and-dump activity involving meme coins.Bubblemaps tracked the user's public address and found that the associated wallet address 2mQB8o had issued the token $SIAS on the Pumpfun platform, which at one point had a market cap of 6 million dollars before quickly going to zero, after which the project team deleted all social media accounts. Data shows that the user participated in the pump-and-dump operations through 4 sidechain wallets, profiting approximately 600,000 dollars, while their personal wallet also gained an additional 25,000 dollars. Bubblemaps stated that the wallets associated with this user have also issued multiple meme coin projects that ultimately went to zero.

CZ added on his "Wei Wei" X account with 863,000 followers: Who would impersonate a supporter of BNB, using fake AI images for several months just to spread FUD? I can't think of any other possibility; I can only say this looks like something a (self-important) competitor would do, focusing on us more than on themselves.This account seems to have previously belonged to a lady. Before February 2015, the account mostly posted photos of women. Then in July 2015, the account suddenly switched and started posting only cryptocurrency-related content. Either the account was hacked or it was bought. They didn't even bother to delete the old photos. Those old pictures can still be seen on his media page. What a lazy bot.

Binance founder CZ revealed that he discovered users on the social media platform X using AI-generated images to impersonate supporters who are closely associated with him.CZ pointed out that the account has 863,000 followers, used a photo from a BNB Chain event in Korea that he attended as a banner, and posted several AI-generated photos of him with CZ. By analyzing the details of the photos, such as the fact that he never wears blue or purple clothing, and the inconsistent resolution of the characters in the images, CZ identified these as forged images. The original photo was actually a picture with Aster CEO Leonard.CZ reminded the community to be vigilant against such potential scams, while also stating that the Binance team welcomes sincere constructive feedback.

According to Decrypt, due to a surge in cryptocurrency ATM scams targeting the elderly, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an emergency warning this Monday and launched a new fraud complaint form for victims, advising them to report losses within 30 days to increase the chances of recovering funds.Data shows that in 2024 alone, Arizona residents lost over $177 million due to cryptocurrency ATM scams. Nationwide, losses related to cryptocurrency ATM scams reached $246 million in 2024, with approximately 43% of victims aged 60 and older. Mayes warned that anyone instructing consumers to use cryptocurrency ATMs is "very likely" committing fraud.Scammers often impersonate law enforcement, utility companies, or distressed relatives, pressuring victims through urgent phone calls or text messages to withdraw cash and deposit it into cryptocurrency ATMs. In response to this issue, Arizona enacted a law in 2025 to regulate approximately 600 cryptocurrency ATMs in the state, requiring operators to display multilingual fraud warnings, provide 24/7 real-time customer support, and set transaction limits (new customers $2,000 per day, existing users $10,500 per day). Mayes emphasized that no legitimate company or government agency would ask for deposits through cryptocurrency ATMs.

The Venezuelan police arrested Rosa María González, a suspect in the Generación Zoe fraud case, in San Cristóbal. This fraud case has led to investor losses of at least $120 million. Leonardo Cositorto, the head of Generación Zoe, previously stated that Rosa María González fled with 611 bitcoins after the project's collapse, which were worth about $56 million at the time.Investigations show that Generación Zoe attracted investors by promising returns of up to 7.5%, but it was actually a Ponzi scheme. Rosa María González had claimed that the trading algorithm she developed had quantum-safe features, with monthly returns of up to 70%. During her time on the run, she allegedly planned new fraud projects, promising investments starting at $1,000 with a monthly return of 5%. Currently, diplomatic relations between Argentina and Venezuela are tense, making the extradition process difficult.

The community has announced that the official Solar X account (https://x.com/Solana_zh) is suspected to have been hacked, and the account is currently unable to log in. They are urgently contacting the platform for resolution.Solar has also issued a risk warning to the community, stating that during this period, any requests for information, funds, or sensitive operations made in the name of Solar on the X platform are fraudulent. Community users are reminded not to be deceived.

According to India Today, the Indian Enforcement Directorate has arrested two individuals related to the BitConnect cryptocurrency scam, which involves global fraud, kidnapping, and extortion, with amounts reaching thousands of bitcoins and tens of millions of rupees in cash.The arrested individuals, Nikunj Pravinbhai Bhatt and Sanjay Kotadia, are suspected of being involved in a kidnapping and extortion case, where the victim was forced to hand over 2,254 bitcoins, 11,000 litecoins, and approximately 1.45 billion rupees in cash. Some of the extorted bitcoins were converted into ETH and USDT and transferred through multiple wallets. The Indian Enforcement Directorate has frozen and seized assets worth approximately 1.9 billion rupees, including cryptocurrency assets, stocks, and cash; to date, the total value of seized or frozen assets in this case is around 21.7 billion rupees. The investigation is still ongoing. The Indian Enforcement Directorate stated that BitConnect presented itself as a high-return investment platform, claiming that its self-developed volatility trading robot could generate returns of up to 40% per month. The agency indicated that these claims are entirely fictitious, aimed at creating a false illusion of growth, including posting about a 1% fictitious daily return rate on its website.

According to Crypto Politan, the Vietnamese police have arrested five suspects in the Da Nang area who are allegedly operating a cryptocurrency scam gang.The Vietnamese police mentioned in a statement that these suspects are based in Cambodia and are running cryptocurrency scam activities. The scam is suspected of mimicking the Nasdaq exchange, with the suspects misappropriating 14 billion Vietnamese dong (approximately $532,800). The police also noted that these suspects possess a strong telecommunications network and electronic devices that allow them to carry out illegal activities from their residences in the Da Nang area. The gang utilized Zalo and Telegram to create dozens of fake accounts, posting fraudulent trading activities and impersonating investment experts to deceive victims into investing, while falsely reporting profits. After misappropriating the funds, the money was transferred through multiple bank accounts and ultimately exchanged for cryptocurrency to cover its origins.

According to monitoring by ZachXBT, a victim lost over $282 million in LTC and BTC due to a hardware wallet social engineering scam.The attackers subsequently converted the stolen LTC and BTC into Monero through multiple instant exchange platforms, causing a temporary surge in XMR prices. Some BTC was also cross-chained to Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin networks via Thorchain. A total of approximately 2.05 million LTC and 1,459 BTC have been disclosed as stolen addresses.

According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency analysis firm Chainalysis stated in its latest report that losses from cryptocurrency scams and fraud could reach as high as $17 billion in 2025.Among these, impersonation scams have seen a year-on-year increase of 1400%, while AI-assisted scams are 4.5 times more profitable than traditional scams.

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams commented on the NYC token event launched by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams on the X platform. Hayden Adams stated that celebrity politicians can legitimately profit from blockchain technology without damaging their reputation or getting into legal trouble.Hayden Adams pointed out that blockchain has created unprecedented and extremely powerful tools for coordination, monetization, and value distribution. It exists in reality and is functioning, used by millions of people worldwide, with an increasing number of assets being tokenized and real business models developing on this basis. However, when celebrities use blockchain, they essentially act like foolish scammers, often unaware that transactions are public.