Brooklyn prosecutors and FBI seized or interfered with 241 websites and 112 servers related to an encryption scam. The scam is alleged to have targeted the Russian-speaking community within the United States, defrauding tens of millions of dollars.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez ( Eric Gonzalez ) stated that this operation was launched last week as a result of a three-year investigation. The target of the investigation is a fraud network that relies on the online infrastructure of Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, as well as IP addresses. No arrests have been announced officially.

Officials said that approximately $300,000 has been recovered so far. The prosecution stated that some victims lost all their savings.

When victims attempt to withdraw their funds, these platforms lock their accounts or demand that they pay additional amounts under the pretext of so-called taxes and fees. Gonzalez said that the scammers then "attempt to exploit them again with false promises, claiming they can help them recover their money."

The data recovered by the prosecution indicates that scammers would contact the victims several weeks after the initial scam occurred, offering to help them retrieve the stolen funds.

The Virtual Currency Department of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office had previously seized or disrupted 400 domain names related to crypto investment scams, but alternative websites continue to emerge.

This time, investigators turned their focus to the servers that hosted the victims' data and ran the fraudulent software, which were managed by companies from Eastern Europe and the United States. The goal of the prosecution is to prevent the operators from quickly launching new websites again.

At the time of this incident, the FBI annual report indicated that in 2025, crypto investment scams accounted for approximately 84% of investment fraud losses, with a total amount of about 8.65 billion US dollars.

Among all categories of internet crimes, losses related to encryption totaled 1.137 billion US dollars, accounting for approximately 54% of the total losses of 2.088 billion US dollars. Both percentages are calculated based on the totals published by FBI.

Brooklyn authorities stated that they have seized approximately $300,000 and are working to recover more funds.