The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), through the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, has just announced the establishment of a new ambitious interagency initiative named the "Scam Center Strike Force." The sole objective of this force is to dismantle transnational cryptocurrency fraud operations, particularly the criminal organizations behind a scheme known as "pig butchering." This is considered the clearest statement from Washington regarding the intention to shift from a fragmented defensive posture to a coordinated, comprehensive offensive strategy to combat global cybercrime.
This task force will be a close collaboration among key federal agencies, including the DOJ, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and many other government entities. Their mission is to root out transnational crime networks that have made billions in recent years by defrauding people around the world through fake cryptocurrency websites and impersonation on social media platforms.
At the announcement, Ms. Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, directly linked the issue of cryptocurrency fraud to organized crime networks in China. Ms. Pirro emphasized that this is a "growing pandemic" systematically targeting Americans. She also revealed a shocking figure: it is estimated that such fraud schemes may have cheated Americans out of up to $135 billion just in the year 2024. To demonstrate the progress made, Ms. Pirro announced that her office has seized $400 million in cryptocurrency from bad actors and just announced the seizure of an additional $80 million in stolen cryptocurrency, funds that the DOJ is seeking to return to victims.
Ms. Pirro has clearly identified three core objectives of the new task force: first, to identify and prosecute the leaders of these cryptocurrency fraud organizations; second, to trace and seize stolen funds to return to victims; and third, to confiscate and disable U.S. infrastructure—that is, the tools and means used to carry out the fraudulent acts.
This initiative is not merely a matter of law enforcement but also carries significant political strategy implications. Ms. Pirro has connected the task force with President Donald Trump's pro-cryptocurrency agenda, arguing that as the president encourages Americans to embrace this new frontier, consumers need to feel safe and secure when transacting online. According to her, "No tricks can be part of cryptocurrency."
Top cryptocurrency security experts have long criticized the U.S. government for failing to address "pig butchering" scams—named such because the scammer slowly builds trust with the victim, "fattening" them up before taking all their money—through a coordinated inter-agency approach. Previously, agencies like the FBI and Treasury often focused solely on individual aspects of crime without acknowledging that they stem from the same origins in black markets that facilitate most cryptocurrency crimes.
The establishment of the Central Fraud Task Force has been viewed by experts as a necessary shift in approach. Ari Redbord, head of global policy at blockchain intelligence firm TRM, stated that this is the "clearest statement showing that the U.S. intends to fight back with the full power of the state." He emphasized this coordination: the Department of Justice prosecutes, the Treasury sanctions, the FBI investigates, FinCEN analyzes, the State Department pressures, and the industry traces.
This coordination has been modeled after a major incident last month when the DOJ announced the seizure of $14 billion in Bitcoin from a scam network in Cambodia linked to China. This operation—involving the coordinated actions of the DOJ, FBI, DEA, and State Department—has demonstrated the effectiveness of shifting to a "proactive disruption" model rather than merely reacting. This indicates that the new Task Force will utilize every available tool, from criminal action, financial sanctions to diplomatic intervention, to cripple global cryptocurrency crime syndicates. #anh_ba_cong
