ChainCatcher reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an announcement that it has seized $112 million worth of digital assets related to crypto investment scams. In addition, judges in the District of Arizona, the Central District of California, and the District of Idaho authorized the seizure of 6 virtual currency accounts.
According to court documents, these virtual currency accounts were allegedly used to launder proceeds from various cryptocurrency scams. In the scams, the perpetrators gradually gained the trust of the victims through social networks, dating websites, phone calls, text messages and other communication methods. Ultimately, the criminals convinced them to invest in fake cryptocurrency platforms and then transferred the stolen funds to their own addresses.
The U.S. Department of Justice noted that in 2022, investment fraud caused the highest losses of all scams reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), totaling $3.31 billion. Fraud involving cryptocurrencies (including pig-killing trays) accounted for the majority of these scams, with reported losses increasing 183% from 2021 to last year, reaching $2.57 billion. (Source link)