727 FinancePANews October 18 news, according to CryptoBriefing, the Virtual Currency Unit (VCU) led by Alona Katz, Assistant District Attorney at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, together with the FBI New York Office, carried out a joint operation, seizing or shutting down 241 fraudulent domains and 112 servers.
This October operation marks the conclusion of a three-year investigation into a cryptocurrency investment fraud network with an international background. The network mainly targeted Russian-speaking communities, directing victims to fake crypto investment platforms through Russian-language ads on Facebook, and then carried out secondary fraud under the pretext of "recovering funds." Investigators estimate related losses in the tens of millions of dollars, with some victims losing all their savings. Prosecutors have so far recovered about $300,000 for victims, and no arrests have been reported in this operation.
The FBI's "2025 Internet Crime Report" shows that cryptocurrency-related fraud losses reached $11.366 billion that year, an increase of 22% over the previous year. Losses from cryptocurrency fraud accounted for more than half of all internet crime losses in 2025.