A warning to US banks

FinCEN told American financial institutions to get sharper at spotting and reporting scam payments, and handed them a long list of red flags to watch for.

Nearly $13 billion gone

US victims lost more than $7.2 billion in 2025 alone. Between September 2023 and December 2025, close to $13 billion was taken from Americans.

Not kids in a basement

These are large, well-organized crime machines running at industrial scale, causing billions in damage worldwide every year.

“large, well-organized crime machines responsible for billions of dollars in damages”

The workers are prisoners

Rings in Cambodia, Burma and Laos trafficked hundreds of thousands of people into compounds, took their passports and forced them to run fraud. Missed quotas mean beatings.

Police cannot touch them

Some compounds are endorsed or directly run by corrupt local officials, which is why raids and arrests rarely stick.

The opening move

A scammer arrives as a romantic match, a financial advisor, or a wrong number. Weeks of friendly chat come before any mention of money.

Buy crypto, send it here

Victims get talked into an "investment" with impossible returns. FinCEN says most payments start at money services businesses and crypto kiosks, then go straight to a scammer's wallet.

“the victim is told to send these funds to a digital asset address controlled by the scammers”

Then they scam you again

Fraudsters come back posing as police, banks, even FinCEN itself, offering to recover the stolen money for a fee. Others tell victims to buy gold bars and hand them to a courier.

Three steps to clean cash

Money mules and shell companies collect the crypto, mixers and cross-chain swaps hide its origin, then stablecoins and Chinese underground banking push it back into real finance.