The U.S. Department of Justice has made headway against cryptocurrency investment fraud (CIF) schemes in Southeast Asia with the recent seizure of a domain linked to the Tai Chang scam compound in Burma, confirmed by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, according to the Department of Justice. The now-seized domain, tickmilleas.com, was part of an elaborate ploy to deceive Americans into thinking they were making sound investments, when in reality, their funds were being siphoned off by fraudsters; the site functioned by showing inflated returns and fabricated trades, duping numerous victims in the process.
This action follows the establishment of the Scam Center Strike Force, which is an initiative that targets high-level fraud activities with the collaboration of federal law enforcement and interagency partners, less than three weeks after the seizure of two additional domains also involved in CIF scams originating from the same Tai Chang compound. The compound has ties to the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited (Trans Asia), both of which were labeled as specially-designated nationals for connections to Chinese organized crime and the proliferation of scam centers in Southeast Asia.
The collaborative effort between the Scam Center Strike Force and private sector companies such as Google and Apple has resulted in the removal of fraudulent mobile applications associated with tickmilleas.com from the Google Play and Apple App Store; Meta has also contributed by taking down approximately 2000 accounts associated with the compound, as highlighted by the investigation. FBI agents have been sent to work with the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok to further investigate and disrupt the operations of such scam organizations.
These schemes, sometimes called “pig butchering,” involve fattening victims with the promise of real cryptocurrency gains before defrauding them—often out of Southeast Asia-based scam compounds using U.S. social media and communication tools to target their victims, gain trust, and then lure them into fake cryptocurrency investment websites and applications, many of these scam compounds have such a significant impact on their country’s economies, with some estimates suggesting they might constitute nearly half of a country’s GDP and these scam industries reportedly defraud Americans of around $9-10 billion annually.
The establishment of the Scam Center Strike Force is a cooperative venture encompassing multiple departments, designed to lead the charge against CIF schemes and apprehend key figures involved in these criminal activities. If you believe you have been victimized by a scheme like the one associated with tickmilleas.com, you’re encouraged to file a complaint with the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, using “tickmilleas.com” as a reference in your submission. For those with information on the Tai Chang scam compound, the FBI can be contacted at [email protected].
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U.S. Justice Department Seizes Cryptocurrency Fraud Domain, Intensifies Crackdown on Southeast Asia-Based Scams – Hoodline
