The federal government wants financial institutions to be more vigilant in spotting and reporting schemes perpetrated by overseas scam centers. 

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) released an alert to the financial industry alongside a comprehensive study of more than 33,000 cyber fraud incident reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025. 

The report said about $12.7 billion was stolen from Americans in cryptocurrency investment scams from victims in all 50 states and U.S. territories. 

“The transnational criminal organizations behind these scams exploit both emerging technologies and human vulnerabilities, resulting in devastating financial losses for innocent American victims,” Treasury Department official Gene Lange said.

The report is based on reports submitted by about 1,300 financial institutions and is tied to a 2023 alert from the Treasury about so-called pig butchering scams. FinCEN found that the rate of suspected scam activity is increasing as the schemes expand beyond centers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. 

FinCEN received nearly 11% more reports each month compared to the month prior. The reports were instructive for federal investigators because typically financial institutions only had visibility into one phase of a scam’s lifecycle. 

Scammers use different personas — from romantic partner to trusted financial adviser — while coaxing people into sending money, either through traditional bank transfers or with cryptocurrency. 

The report notes that adults over 60 were not overrepresented in the victim pool, accounting for about 25% of all reports. The report suggests that other age demographics are also being scammed at similar rates. 

A significant number of reports came from cryptocurrency firms, which identified about $5.5 billion in suspected scam activity. 

More traditional banks reported about $6.4 billion in potential fraud, telling investigators that they “often detected schemes when a victim sent funds to an [financial institution] in the digital asset sector to purchase digital assets, or when a customer sent a wire transfer to a scam-affiliated beneficiary, frequently referencing digital asset investments.” 

The report notes that some victims submitted applications for loans and second mortgages as part of their participation in a scam.

Other financial firms noted thousands of cases where victims liquidated their investment accounts to fund digital assets or attempted to conduct wire transfers to scammer-affiliated accounts. 

“[A financial institution] involved in the digital assets sector reported an older adult victim transferred nearly $640,000 from her retirement fund to send to a suspected scammer in connection with an apparent digital asset investment scheme,” the report said. 

“The victim stated she met an individual over social media who instructed her to invest in an apparently fictitious digital asset-related company.”

Another victim withdrew almost $150,000 from his retirement account, took out a personal loan and took out lines of credit on his home to send funds to a scammer. The victim was denied personal loans two separate times and said he needed the money to invest in a venture touted by his digital romantic partner. 

Most filings reported the use of coins like Ethereum, Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC) but at least 18 other coins appeared in the reports. FinCEN noted that scammers almost always exchanged stolen funds for USDT. 

Most victims only realized they were taking part in a scam when they were asked to pay a fee to get their money back. Investigators also found several cases where scammers posed as an “asset recovery service” to steal again from victims. 

Days after the report was released, the U.S. government took action against Xinbi Guarantee, a key Telegram-based illicit marketplace that helped scammers launder billions. 

Ari Redbord, global head of policy at blockchain research firm TRM Labs, said Xinbi was sanctioned because it became the go-to platform for Southeast Asia scam compounds after the previous U.S. takedown of Chinese platform Huione. 

More than $36 billion was laundered on Xinbi, Redbord said.