The U.S. Secret Service, working with federal prosecutors in Washington D.C., announced the recovery of more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to five separate fraud investigations. The cases, handled by the agency’s Cyber Fraud Task Force, uncovered international schemes that targeted victims across the United States and Canada.
Romance Scams and Laundered Funds
The largest seizure, about $12.1 million, traced back to romance scams that involved over 200 victims. Scammers funneled money through hundreds of intermediary wallet addresses, mixing stolen funds with those from other victims to obscure the trail. Another case, valued at roughly $10.4 million, started when Canadian authorities flagged a network of suspicious wallets. Agents then identified more than 270 suspected victim transactions linked to fraudulent investment platforms. Together, these two cases account for roughly 85% of the total recovered assets.
Fake Investment Accounts and Recovery Scams
The remaining three cases involved slightly different tactics. In one, a victim invested through what looked like a legitimate crypto platform, but operators cut off contact when the victim tried to withdraw. Authorities are seeking about $1.2 million from that operation. Another case saw two victims transfer millions to the same fraudulent platform, leading agents to freeze funds across six wallet addresses; the related complaint targets nearly $2.4 million. The smallest seizure, roughly $285,000, came from a recovery scam. The perpetrators told a previous scam victim they had recovered stolen funds and demanded an upfront fee. The FBI has warned that AI-enabled fraudsters increasingly target past victims with these follow-on schemes.
Wider Fraud Landscape
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Complaint Center report recorded 1,008,597 complaints and $20.88 billion in reported losses, a 26% increase from 2024. Investment fraud alone produced about $8.65 billion in losses, and cryptocurrency appeared in 181,565 complaints. During May 2026, the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force Disruption Week took down more than 1.4 million scam-linked social media and email accounts. Participating companies also froze over $3.8 million in crypto, while Thai authorities arrested seven suspects.
Ongoing Investigations and International Cooperation
Investigators traced most suspected launderers to Southeast Asia, with IP addresses linked to China, Malaysia, and Cambodia. The seizures add to over $800 million recovered through the Scam Center Strike Force since it launched in November 2025. The Secret Service described the cases as active investigations, saying they continue working with international partners to identify the suspects. Singapore’s police have also shown how exchanges can help disrupt fraud, preventing millions in losses through coordinated intervention. Victims or potential targets can contact a local Secret Service field office or file a complaint via the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
