According to the authorities, the court requested an official seizure of approximately 8.2 million USDT held in three crypto currency wallets. These assets contain direct funds related to the losses of victims.

These funds were seized from a crypto investment plan carried out by scammers using “wrong number” messages and fake trading platforms. Scammers send “wrong number” messages to random people through telephone, dating applications and professional meeting groups.

He then creates trust by making friends with them and slowly directs them to a fake investment opportunity. This type of fraud is often called “Pig Butchering”.

The victims are directed step by step to open accounts on legal platforms such as Crypto.com and Coinbase. After depositing money in their accounts, scammers convince them to transfer money to an investment platform that looks professional but actually controlled by scammers.

At first, the impression that the platform is reliable is created by allowing victims to withdraw money in small amounts. However, in time, their access to their accounts is completely prevented and when they want to withdraw their money, additional payment is requested on the pretext that they need to pay taxes.

Authorities, fraudsters in the last stage to continue to defraud victims under the name of taxes demanded additional payment, he said. As a result, the victims lost their access to their accounts on the investment platform and lost all the funds they have paid.

At least 33 people in the United States lost a total of 4.9 million dollars in this method, while the identity of five victims of $ 1 million reportedly suffered a loss of 1 million dollars.

Among these victims, Ohio said that a woman from Lake County lost a total of $ 663,000, including Roth IRA funds. In June 2024, the woman applied to the FBI’s Internet Crimes Complaint Center and launched an investigation.

Authorities, block chain analysis of the stolen crypto currencies and identified three different wallets. The FBI froze the funds with the help of Tether by applying a seizure order and transferred to the wallet controlled by a law enforcement.

On February 27, US prosecutor Carol Skutnik and Assistant Prosecutor James Morford demanded officially confiscated their rescued crypto assets in the seizure petition they submitted to the court.

In the petition, it was claimed that there were additional funds beyond the losses of the victims in the accounts and that they were linked to money laundering and fraud activities.

In 2024, Pig Butchering frauds made up 33.2 %of the fund flows for crypto fraud. According to Chainalysis data, investments in such frauds increased by 210 %compared to the previous year.