Brooklyn Eric Gonzalez’s prosecutor, along with New York Attorney General Letitia James and New York Financial Services Inspector, Adrienne Harris, announced today that a long -term research of multiple agencies has led to an investment in investment. Community in Brooklyn and throughout the country.
Clerical encryption was sent to the registrars as a payment to create false encryption investment sectors and to meta as a payment for Facebook ads promoting false encryption investment opportunities. After learning the research, Meta closed more than 700 accounts associated with the advertising “black hat” that promotes fraud.
Court orders led to the seizure of $ 140,000 worth, freezing about $ 300,000 encryption and disassembling a group of fraud and secretaries.
The survey began in October 2024, when NYDFS knew that a false encryption website showed what it looked like a Bitlicense certificate, supposedly issued by the Agency (these certificates are issued in legal coin -operated operations operating in New York Currency slide).
The first NYDF website was whatrade.com and further research revealed that the domain name was linked to a large network of relevant sectors and accounts that were part of a fraud campaign aimed at Russian residents of Brooklyn and the whole state and country.
The scammers involved in this plan were lurking victims with misleading social media ads, many in Russian and especially on Facebook, with popular names and personalities. As soon as the victims showed interest in investment, the scammers responded and moved the discussion to encrypted private messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
After the victims made an initial investment in fraudulent platforms, the scammers have falsely shown the victims that their investment accounts were increasing in value and encouraged the victims to send more money.
After more investments, sometimes a total of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the victims were unable to withdraw their funds and told them they had to pay more in false withdrawal or taxes. Eventually, the scammers cut the contact with the victim and put their money.
During the investigation, more than 300 victims were identified and many came into contact with the Brooklyn prosecutor and the New York Ministry of Finance’s researchers and were notified of fraud to stop sending funds to fake investment platforms.
It is estimated that the plan has caused losses of more than $ 1 million in Brooklyn alone. To disturb the plan and prevent future damage, the DA’s office carried out a series of warrants that led to over 100 sectors and 17 secretaries accounts. The fraudsters were terminated in their e -mail, effectively disconnecting their communications with the victims. It was seized $ 140,000 stolen by the victims that can now be returned. And he was able, with the NYDFS, to monitor the Blockchain activity in real time and to warn dozens of victims who had just begun to deal with the scammers, preventing future loss of funds.
In addition, Da Gonzalez appeared in Russian media to explain these types of fraud and advise members of the community on how to protect themselves.
The scammers are aiming for Russian speakers by launching an advertising campaign on Facebook, which promised high returns in encryption investment. To avoid their true Facebook identity and to avoid restrictions on misleading and fraudulent advertising, scammers paid people based in Vietnam for “Black Hat” advertising services.
The “Black Hat” ad on Facebook refers to misleading electronic tactics used to promote services that violate Facebook’s advertising policies. The research revealed that scammers used encryption of a million dollars stolen by victims to pay “black hat” advertising to place misleading ads.
The Attorney General’s office joined the investigation, focusing on paying funds to advertisers “Facebook Black Hat”. Their research revealed that an advertiser “black hat” converts the bitcoin sent by victims into local Vietnamese currency, which was used to buy more advertisements on Facebook.
The OAG successfully received a judicial order to freeze $ 300,000 in encryption accounts linked to “black hat” advertisers.