$12 Million Frozen in International Crypto Scam Crackdown Affecting 20,000 Victims
Severity: High (Score: 66.5)
Sources: Feeds2.Feedburner, www.reuters.com, www.quicknode.com, krebsonsecurity.com, www.halborn.com
Summary
An international law enforcement operation has frozen over $12 million and identified more than 20,000 victims of cryptocurrency scams. The crackdown revealed more than $45 million in suspected fraud losses globally. According to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report, cryptocurrency-related fraud accounted for approximately $11.3 billion in losses, with investment fraud being a significant contributor. The operation highlights the ongoing threat posed by various crypto scams, including Ponzi schemes and rug pulls. Victims include individuals from the UK and beyond, with some losing substantial amounts to these fraudulent schemes. The operation underscores the need for increased vigilance and awareness among cryptocurrency users and investors. Key Points: • Over $12 million frozen in a crackdown on cryptocurrency scams affecting 20,000 victims. • FBI reports $11.3 billion in losses from cryptocurrency-related fraud in 2025. • Investment fraud remains a major driver of losses in the cryptocurrency space.
Key Entities
- Lazarus Group (apt_group)
- Malware (attack_type)
- Phishing (attack_type)
- Price Manipulation Attack (attack_type)
- Ransomware (attack_type)
- Integer Overflow (attack_type)
- Inverse Finance Hack (campaign)
- Vow Hack (campaign)
- Drift (campaign)
- Axie DAO (company)
- Bybit (company)
- BZx (company)
- Cream Finance (company)
- Euler Finance (company)
- crypto.com (domain)
- ic3.gov (domain)
- 0x098b716b8aaf21512996dc57eb0615e2383e2f96 (eth)
- 0x3C5c2F4bCeC51a36494682f91Dbc6cA7c63B514C (eth)
- Government (industry)
- Healthcare (industry)
- Coinhive (malware)
- T1566.002 - Spearphishing Link (mitre_attack)
- Aave (platform)
- Bitcoin (platform)
- Curve (platform)
- MakerDAO (platform)
- Solana (platform)
- Monero (tool)
- Tornado Cash (tool)
- Front-running Bot (tool)
- Revoke.cash (tool)
- Reentrancy (vulnerability)