{"id":21667,"date":"2025-03-03T10:24:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T08:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/us-authorities-to-return-8-2-million-to-crypto-scam-victims\/"},"modified":"2025-03-03T10:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T08:24:28","slug":"us-authorities-to-return-8-2-million-to-crypto-scam-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/us-authorities-to-return-8-2-million-to-crypto-scam-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"US Authorities to Return $8.2 Million to Crypto Scam Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US authorities will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-ndoh\/pr\/ohio-woman-loses-life-savings-cryptocurrency-investment-scam\">return<\/a> $8.2 million seized from fraudsters who acquired the funds through a &#8220;wrong number&#8221; scheme.<\/p>\n<p>The scammers deceived individuals via text messages, posing as acquaintances who had supposedly sent a message to the &#8220;wrong number.&#8221; They built trust with the victims before persuading them to invest in fake crypto platforms promising high returns.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement from the Ohio prosecutor&#8217;s office, the <span data-descr=\"Federal Bureau of Investigation\" class=\"old_tooltip\">FBI<\/span> identified 33 victims, with five more remaining unknown. Total losses are estimated at $6 million.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors reported that the fraudsters&#8217; accounts &#8220;contained additional funds exceeding the victims&#8217; losses,&#8221; totaling $8.2 million, suggesting possible involvement in money laundering.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation commenced in June 2024, when one victim contacted the FBI&#8217;s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Blockchain analysis helped trace some of the stolen funds. The assets were converted into USDT stablecoins and transferred to three crypto wallets.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement obtained a warrant to seize the cryptocurrency. Subsequently, USDT issuer Tether froze the funds and moved them to a wallet under government control.<\/p>\n<p>The scammers also employed emotional pressure tactics. One victim, a woman from Ohio, lost her entire savings of $663,000, and when she refused to transfer additional funds, she and her family were threatened with physical harm.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in 2024, losses from crypto industry fraud <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/chainalysis-reports-crypto-fraud-losses-reach-9-9-billion-in-2024\">amounted to at least $9.9 billion<\/a>, according to Chainalysis analysts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US authorities will return $8.2 million seized from fraudsters who acquired the funds through a &#8220;wrong number&#8221; scheme. The scammers deceived individuals via text messages, posing as acquaintances who had supposedly sent a message to the &#8220;wrong number.&#8221; They built trust with the victims before persuading them to invest in fake crypto platforms promising high [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1246,26],"class_list":["post-21667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-scammers","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"40","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}