Don't want to trade it yourself?
Our desk runs DEX portfolios on profit share.
Six charged over a Madagascar operation that used fake dating profiles of beautiful women to steal cryptocurrency.
US prosecutors are extending their campaign against international cryptocurrency fraud to Africa and Europe as criminal organisations move their operations beyond Southeast Asia, where police raids have disrupted the sprawling scam centres responsible for stealing billions of dollars from unsuspecting investors. Announcing the expansion yesterday (27 October), US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Ferris Pirro said the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force had frozen more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency, seized 700 fraudulent investment websites and helped disrupt millions of online scam accounts.
The announcement coincided with the unsealing of criminal charges against six people accused of running a scam operation in Madagascar, where workers allegedly posed as beautiful women on dating websites before persuading their victims to connect cryptocurrency wallets to fraudulent investment platforms.
“Chinese TCOs [transnational criminal organisations] are sending scammers into your dating network, your social network, and your messaging applications, all to steal Main Street America’s bank accounts,” Pirro said.
The Madagascar connection
According to a newly unsealed FBI affidavit, seen by ICLG News, the alleged conspiracy operated from at least January 2025 until April 2026, with Malaysian national Chui Kok Wa identified as its leader. Five others – Gislen Neukeu, Shamusa Ninsiima, Clement Mugiraneza, Merveille Mudacumura and Nicodemus Hingima Monyancha – are also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The scheme began with the conspirators posting attractive female profiles on US dating sites. Once contact was established, the supposed women moved conversations to WhatsApp, developed relationships with their targets and gradually introduced the prospect of investing in non-fungible tokens (NFTs), digital assets whose ownership is recorded on a blockchain. Victims were directed to websites resembling legitimate NFT marketplaces and encouraged to connect their cryptocurrency wallets. The sites then tricked victims into granting the scammers permission to access their cryptocurrency wallets and transfer funds out without their knowledge or consent.
Investigators identified approximately 74 cryptocurrency wallets associated with the scheme, with estimated losses of at least $516,695. The Justice Department says around 800 victims reported losses after encountering fraudulent investment platforms linked to the operation.
The affidavit describes one Maryland victim who lost almost $12,000. After depositing cryptocurrency into a wallet connected to a supposed NFT investment, the victim discovered unauthorised withdrawals. A further deposit of more than $9,000 disappeared within approximately 33 minutes.
A carefully rehearsed deception
The FBI’s evidence suggests an operation organised much like a business, complete with employment contracts, salary records, performance targets and detailed instructions for manipulating victims. Documents recovered from phones allegedly associated with Wa included scripts explaining how to build romantic relationships, exchange photographs and arrange video calls. One instruction described the method as “an emotional scam, using the client’s feelings for us to get him to invest”.
Another advised workers to develop convincing personal histories, while a separate document supplied a story about a husband suffering from leukaemia. Workers were instructed to establish trust before discussing investments.
An employment contract specified overnight shifts from 7pm to 7am, matching daytime and evening hours in the United States. It also provided for commissions linked to victims’ investments, financial penalties for missed targets and the temporary surrender of employees’ passports.
Trafficking allegations
The investigation has also prompted difficult questions about whether some people working in the compounds were themselves victims.
In August, FBI investigators travelled to Madagascar at the invitation of local authorities to examine approximately 3,200 electronic devices seized from 13 suspected scam centres. Local police had detained around 400 people, including approximately 40 Chinese nationals. However, several suspects were repatriated to China before US investigators could interview them.
Lawyers representing 25 African nationals detained in Madagascar alleged that their clients had been recruited through online job advertisements, subjected to abuse and intimidation, and prevented from leaving.
The FBI said it had been unable to substantiate those allegations and identified circumstances potentially inconsistent with coercion, including workers receiving cryptocurrency payments. None of those 25 individuals was charged, although US authorities have now obtained a warrant to interview 15 potential witnesses who remain detained in Madagascar.
A global enforcement campaign
Established in November 2025, the Strike Force brings together federal prosecutors, the FBI, Secret Service and other agencies to pursue cryptocurrency fraud, money laundering and trafficking connected to overseas scam compounds. Its enforcement work includes seizing fraudulent websites, cryptocurrency and communications infrastructure, alongside cooperation with technology companies and overseas police.
The Justice Department says reported US losses from cryptocurrency investment fraud rose from $4.57 billion in 2023 to $8.65 billion in 2025. And with criminal organisations increasingly moving their operations to new territories to evade detection, the authorities are determined to pursue them wherever they go. Secret Service special agent Tara McLeese cautioned: “Cybercriminals running scam centers wrongly assume they can relocate to escape our reach,” a sentiment echoed by US Attorney Pirro, who warned: “My Strike Force will expand and grow, and follow the scammers to Africa, India, Europe, and wherever they try to plant their operations. We will work with international partners to stop the cancerous spread of TCOs perpetrating scams on Americans.”
Source: iclg.com