NEW YORK — The Brooklyn district attorney announced a major cryptocurrency scam bust Thursday.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says his team successfully disrupted an operation that defrauded people across the country out of millions of dollars.
The DA’s office says the scammers would target strangers through random text messages, dating websites or other online chat groups and convince them to invest in cryptocurrency through fake websites and apps. The victims would then end up losing their entire investment.
One of the victims says she lost $118,000 to a scammer she met on a dating app.
“He was trying to tell me about crypto because I told him I was in the process of a divorce … I felt like an idiot. Kind of like, right now, I am in a downfall. I just feel like if I could tell other females out there, other victims — don’t fall for it. Listen to your gut,” the victim said.
Investigators say one victim’s investment was traced to a foreign cryptocurrency exchange account and cashed out by an individual somewhere outside of United States jurisdiction.
The Brooklyn DA’s office says they were able to seize over a dozen website domains and three virtual servers associated with the scam operation.
Gonzalez says he established a Virtual Currency Unit in fall 2023 after hearing from a number of Brooklyn residents who said they had fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams.
The DA’s office says don’t respond to text messages from strangers, don’t make cryptocurrency investments based on advice from people you’ve never met, and never pay more money to try to recover lost investments.