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The Justice Department has announced the seizure of a web domain used to target and defraud Americans through cryptocurrency investment fraud (CIF) scams. The domain, tickmilleas.com, was used by those located at the Tai Chang scam compound (also known as Casino Kosai) located in the village of Kyaukhat, Burma. This domain seizure comes less than three weeks after the Justice Department announced the launch of the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office’s (D.C. USAO) “Scam Center Strike Force” – the first District-level CIF strike force – and the seizure of two additional domains that were also used by the Tai Chang scam compound as part of CIF scams.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the domain seizure, Tai Chang is affiliated with the Burmese group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and the Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited (Trans Asia), which were designated by the Department of the Treasury, among others, as specially-designated nationals (SDN) on Nov. 12 for links to Chinese organized crime and development of scam centers in Southeast Asia. The seizure announced today is part of the D.C. USAO’s Scam Center Strike Force’s efforts to combat Southeast Asia scam centers at the highest level and prevent U.S. infrastructure from being used as instrumentalities of the fraud schemes.
The seized domain was disguised as a legitimate investment platform to trick victims into unknowingly depositing their funds. Victims who used the domain reported to the FBI that the site showed lucrative returns on what they believed to be their investments and displayed purported deposits made by scammers to the victims’ “accounts” when the scammers walked the victims through falsified trades. Despite the seized domain being registered in early November 2025, the FBI already identified multiple victims who used the domain in the last month and were scammed out of their investments.
A splashpage the tickmilleas.com website warns victims who have been directed to the domain that it has been seized by law enforcement, thereby disrupting the intended CIF scam activity and related money laundering.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the seizure, the tickmilleas.com domain directed users to download mobile applications linked to the scam from Google Play and the Apple App Store. The FBI notified Google and Apple of the fraudulent apps, and several of the applications have been voluntarily removed. Additionally, also announced today, based on information provided by the FBI about Tai Chang scam compound, Meta identified and voluntarily removed more than 2,000 accounts from their network of social media platforms.
In 2024 alone, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 41,000 complaints reporting roughly $5.8 billion in losses from CIF scams. These CIF scams, such as the ones described by victims in the affidavit, typically begin through unsolicited outreach from strangers over dating applications, social media, messaging applications, and text messages. These strangers form close virtual relationships with their victim targets, convince them to make purported investments in or using cryptocurrency, and direct victims on how to purchase cryptocurrency and invest it using fraudulent domains and applications that appear legitimate.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Department of Justice, and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dargis of the FBI San Diego Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI San Diego Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Ethan Cantor of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) and The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are prosecuting the case.
The case is the latest public action taken by the District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force. The D.C. USAO’s Scam Center Strike Force is a collaboration of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; DOJ’s Criminal Division, including the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), Fraud Section, and Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the U.S. Secret Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island is also collaborating on the initiative. Additionally, the D.C. USAO’s Scam Center Strike Force benefits from the work of FBI agents deployed to Bangkok to investigate and combat scam compounds, including Tai Chang and other compounds in Burma.
CCIPS investigates and prosecutes cybercrime in coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, often with assistance from the private sector. Since 2020, CCIPS has secured the conviction of over 180 cybercriminals, and court orders for the return of over $350 million in victim funds.
The original announcement can be found here.
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