Crypto thieves behind $2.2 million scam to be served lawsuit via NFT

Quick Take

-A lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that a ring of crypto scammers has stolen at least $2.2 million from New Yorkers solicited from fake remote work offers.

-James seeks to become the first regulator to serve unidentified scammers a lawsuit via an airdropped NFT.

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a new lawsuit on Thursday that seeks to recover $2.2 million in frozen stablecoins from an alleged ring of scammers targeting New Yorkers looking for remote work opportunities.

While the alleged scammers' identities are currently unknown, James' lawsuit describes a sophisticated network that recruited victims by claiming to offer remote work opportunities before guiding them through depositing stablecoins into a wallet controlled by the scammers.

Victims were told the deposits were necessary in order to perform the job and receive compensation. However, the lawsuit claims, "This compensation, supposedly to be paid in stablecoins, was never real and deposits victims supposedly made into their 'working accounts' in reality simply went into wallets that [the alleged scammers] owned and/or controlled."

Nearly $2.2 million worth of USDT and USDC stablecoins has been frozen in scammer-controlled wallets, according to the lawsuit, which seeks to reclaim that sum plus damages and legal fees from the alleged scammers, as well as barring them from repeating the scam. The lawsuit names several victims who were defrauded out of $100,000 or more, such as Ally, a hotel receptionist living in New York's Nassau County, and Mell, a 31-year-old teacher from Queens.