Overview
- Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against six people alleged to have run a romance-to-crypto fraud operation based in Africa with ties to Southeast Asia and China.
- Investigators say scammers posed as women on dating apps, used scripted videos and voice notes to build trust, then persuaded victims to connect cryptocurrency wallets to bogus NFT or investment sites.
- The FBI identified about 74 cryptocurrency wallets tied to roughly 800 U.S. victims, and filings estimate at least hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from those wallets.
- Prosecutors named Chui Kok Wa as an alleged ringleader whose seized phones contained scripts, contact cards tracking U.S. victims, employment records and bonus schemes tied to stolen money.
- U.S. authorities have asked Madagascar to extradite the six suspects, obtained warrants to interview about 15 alleged trafficked employees believed held there, and the Scam Center Strike Force says it has restrained over $1 billion in illicit crypto and seized more than 700 fraudulent sites.