US authorities target rising cryptocurrency and online fraud networks

Online fraud and cryptocurrency scams are causing massive financial losses in the United States. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, Americans lost $11.366 billion to crypto fraud in 2025. A separate report from the Consumer Federation of America estimated that total losses to online scams and crimes reached approximately $148 billion in 2025, a 26 percent increase from the previous year.

In response to these trends, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Virtual Currency Unit (VCU), led by Assistant District Attorney Alona Katz, recently conducted an operation in coordination with the FBI. The action disrupted 241 scam domains and 112 servers located in the United States and Eastern Europe, specifically linked to Ukraine. The investigation targeted a network that used Russian-language advertisements on Facebook to lure victims into fake investment platforms, followed by recovery scams that targeted those who had already lost money.

On a legislative level, the Safeguarding Consumers from Advertising Misconduct Act, referred to as the SCAM Act, has been introduced in Congress. The bill aims to address fraudulent advertisements on online platforms. This comes as the FBI reports that AI-enabled fraud accounted for an estimated $6.3 billion in losses in 2025.