Six people charged in alleged international cryptocurrency, romance scam
WASHINGTON - Federal charges were announced Tuesday against six alleged scammers, who authorities said used pictures of beautiful women to steal money from unsuspecting Americans. Officials called it "a highly sophisticated and increasingly common form of cryptocurrency investment fraud."
What we know:
The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against six men, who they call Africa-based scammers with ties to Southeast Asia and China.
Authorities allege that the scammers posed as beautiful women who met victims on dating websites. They eventually convinced the victims to connect their cryptocurrency wallets to fraudulent websites associated with NFT investments. Then, once connected, the suspected scammers got the victims to continue to fund their cryptocurrency wallets, which they stole from, without the victims’ knowledge.
Authorities added that the supposed scammers kept track of their U.S. victims by listing their personal info in the contact cards on their phones. For instance, one contact card included: "Bob/soft Ware Engineer/50/Phoenix/devorced [sic]."
They also gave detailed instructions to human models – real people with fake personas – to create short videos and voice notes that were used to hook their victims.
Altogether, FBI investigators said they identified about 74 cryptocurrency wallets associated with approximately 800 victims throughout the country.
What they're saying:
"These cases devastate the victims financially, and they devastate them emotionally, because the victim feels that not only have they lost everything, but they feel ashamed. Sometimes they don’t want to report it, and then they lose a sense of security that they’re not in control of their own life," explained U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.
She added, "It is more than just occurring in the United States, it is a global epidemic."
What's next:
The scheme is alleged to have operated out of Madagascar.
Pirro said that authorities here have asked authorities there to extradite the six defendants.
The Source: Information in this article is from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.