FBI Seizes Bitcoin From Overseas Scammers Who Posed as US Law Enforcement Officials

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has seized bitcoin worthy millions of dollars from overseas scammers targeting the elderly. The scammers posed arsenic members of U.S. instrumentality enforcement agencies and tricked the victims into transferring wealth to them for “safekeeping.”

FBI Says It Has Seized Bitcoin From Scammers Overseas

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut and the Acting Special Agent successful Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced Friday that bitcoin and different integer assets person been seized successful transportation with a fraudulent strategy targeting the elderly. They detailed:

An probe of a fraud strategy targeting susceptible victims has resulted successful the forfeiture of astir 151 bitcoins, arsenic good arsenic different integer assets.

The lawsuit is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Marshals Service. At the clip of writing, the worth of the allegedly seized bitcoin totaled astir $3.5 million.

The fraud, which occurred successful astir October 2020, progressive overseas individuals pretending to beryllium members of U.S. instrumentality enforcement agencies. They targeted “vulnerable victims, including first-generation U.S. citizens and aged persons,” the authorities said. Through telephone calls, they told the victims that their individuality had been compromised. After gaining the victims’ trust, the scammers requested transfers of wealth for “safekeeping” with the committedness of returning the funds positive interest. The announcement details:

Once the overseas individuals had entree to the victims’ money, they moved the wealth done aggregate slope accounts and converted the wealth to integer currency successful the signifier of bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies.

“Law enforcement investigators traced the victims’ wealth done the assorted accounts and identified a integer wallet holding bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies that had been purchased with the victims’ money,” the announcement adds. The authorities noted that the overseas scammers stay astatine large.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has been granted “a civilian plus forfeiture seizure warrant for the integer wallet,” the announcement clarifies, elaborating:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office utilized the civilian plus forfeiture process due to the fact that the integer assets constituted the proceeds of ligament fraud.

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