A U.S.-led operation in May and June disrupted Southeast Asia-based cybercrime networks that targeted Americans with cryptocurrency investment scams, with authorities and private companies taking down millions of accounts and freezing more than $3.8 million in crypto tied to stolen funds.
KEY FACTS
- Operation The DoJ said the effort ran from May 18, 2026, under the Scam Center Strike Force.
- Disruption More than 1.4 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, 20,000 Microsoft accounts and thousands of Starlink kits were affected.
- Enforcement Seven scammers were arrested in Thailand, and Thai police opened new cases.
- Losses Reported U.S. losses from crypto investment fraud rose from $3.96 billion in 2023 to more than $7.2 billion in 2025.
The disclosure said the action involved Apple, Coinbase, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Silent Push, SpaceX/Starlink, TRM Labs and Zenlayer, along with law enforcement agencies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand and the United Kingdom. The campaign also targeted malicious IP traffic, scam hosting infrastructure and server environments linked to the networks.
The report said the schemes often begin with scammers building trust over time before steering victims into fraudulent investment platforms that promise high returns. Once money is deposited, it is moved into accounts controlled by the criminals, while some victims are later cut off after they run out of money or question the fraud.
The disclosure also said many of the operations were run from industrial-scale compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Burma near the Thailand border. Workers are sometimes recruited with false job offers, then trafficked into the compounds and forced to carry out fraud under threat of violence.
Meta said law enforcement has arrested 63 potential criminals tied to scam centers so far, while Coinbase froze over $3 million in cryptocurrency assets linked to criminal networks. Last month, a separate joint operation by U.S. and Chinese authorities arrested at least 276 suspects and shut down nine scam centers.
WHY IT MATTERS
The action shows how scam networks span social media, payment systems, internet infrastructure and cross-border labor trafficking. It also underscores the scale of losses from crypto fraud and the need for cooperation between tech companies and law enforcement.