🌋The U.S. Secret Service has returned $5 million to the victims of a fraudster🙏

⚽TRM Labs researchers, in collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), helped recover more than $5 million worth of digital assets that were previously stolen by cybercriminals. The victim and several of her family members lost a large sum of money due to a love story. However, it later turned into an investment scam.

⚽In the late summer of 2022, the scammer contacted the would-be victim through the messaging feature of a real estate app. He later offered to move the conversation to another messenger, as the dialog was already romantic in nature. As a result, the criminal shared information about an unnamed cryptocurrency exchange that offered favorable trading conditions for beginners. The platform turned out to be fake.

⚽The victim installed a phishing application and made a purchase of cryptocurrencies. Then she sent them to an address that was allegedly linked to a trading account on the fake trading platform. The service displayed fake profits of 20% - 30% after 1 day. The victim then made an additional investment of $1.1 million. As a result, over the course of several weeks, the victim and several family members deposited approximately $5.5 million into the fraudulent trading platform. The application showed that the value of the investment had doubled.

⚽In late December 2022, the victim wanted to withdraw a significant amount of her digital assets. For this transaction, she was asked to pay a “withdrawal tax” of $200,000. After failing to access her money after the transfer, the victim realized that she and her family members had been defrauded by the scammers. They turned to the United States Secret Service (USSS) for help.