Money Mule / Laundering Scams

A blockchain investigator publicly questioned whether UPay, a crypto payment card provider, had allowed a sanctioned criminal marketplace called Xinbi to white-label its Visa crypto card, citing Xinbi's use for pig butchering scams, fraud, and money laundering. UPay's CEO announced the company opened an internal investigation but did not confirm or deny any relationship with Xinbi, which the US Treasury designated as a significant transnational criminal organization in September 2026 with over $36 billion in throughput since 2022. The investigation's scope and findings remain unclear, with no confirmation yet that Xinbi actually issued or launched cards through UPay.

AI-powered pig-butchering scams are rapidly scaling through the use of artificial personas on dating apps, with a Chinese app studio deploying over 4,700 AI-driven profiles to interact with at least 25,000 users who purchase credits to communicate. These scams combine AI technology for relationship-building with real people for critical trust-building moments, and Chinese authorities have cracked over 300 AI fraud cases involving face-swapping and voice cloning that exceeded 500 million yuan in losses, with individual cases reaching up to 20 million yuan.

A 49-year-old school worker from Wiltshire was scammed out of £33,000 by someone impersonating Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper on a fake Facebook page over the course of two years. The scammer built an emotional connection, initially requesting money for a trip to Paris and eventually claiming he needed funds for various emergencies, before the victim realized the deception when the fake Bradley failed to show up for a planned Center Parcs trip three days before Christmas. This case is part of a rising trend of celebrity romance scams, with police reporting a 29% increase since 2024, with other victims losing even larger sums after being conned by scammers impersonating Brad Pitt

Manaseh Mintah, 43, of Massachusetts, was convicted of laundering approximately $1.2 million stolen from romance scam victims across the United States through bank accounts and a shell company called Dazionking LLC. He was found guilty of money laundering conspiracy, three counts of money laundering, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, with sentencing scheduled for March 2027. Romance scams particularly targeted vulnerable and older Americans who lost their life savings to the scheme.

Greek police arrested 17 people, including nine military personnel, for operating a cryptocurrency investment pyramid scheme that defrauded at least 10,000 participants of over $8 million since 2025. The operation used fake online platforms across multiple Greek cities to promise guaranteed high returns and double investments within 50 days, while failing to return deposited funds. Police seized €295,090 in cash along with computers and mobile devices during raids on five offices.

This article is a promotional piece about Kitboga, a YouTube content creator with nearly 4 million subscribers who exposes scam tactics by engaging scammers in humorous phone calls to waste their time and disrupt their schemes. Kitboga is featured in an ABA Fraudcast episode and co-founded the National Fraud and Exploitation Intelligence Network, contributing to fraud awareness and prevention efforts. The article does not describe a specific scam incident or financial losses, but rather highlights educational resources and anti-fraud initiatives by the American Bankers Association.

California's SB 1208 signed into law gives law enforcement new tools to return stolen cryptocurrency to fraud victims by allowing seizure of digital assets under search warrants and distribution to victims when perpetrators are beyond U.S. jurisdiction. Cryptocurrency scams in California resulted in over $3.67 billion in reported losses in 2025 alone, with nationwide losses estimated at $75 billion from 2021-2024. The law addresses the challenge that victims often cannot trace laundered assets themselves when funds are commingled across multiple accounts and transfers in organized fraud schemes.

A 25-year-old Indian national pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after collecting $137,458 in gold bars from an 80-year-old Kaneohe woman who was tricked by fake Apple and U.S. Marshal scam calls into liquidating her IRA. The victim was caught in a controlled sting operation by federal agents who used prop gold to arrest the courier, who earned $25,000-$30,000 per ten pickups for an international fraud ring orchestrated from Gujarat, India. The case is part of a broader pattern targeting elderly victims, with similar schemes operating across multiple states through WhatsApp-coordinated courier networks.

Seoul's Joint Government Investigation Unit on Voice Phishing Crime booked 1,381 people and recovered approximately $25 million in criminal proceeds over its four-year operation ending in 2024, while investigating organized remote fraud schemes including voice phishing, smishing, romance scams, and investment schemes. The unit achieved a 43% reduction in voice phishing damages between October 2024 and July 2025 through enhanced government response, and uncovered major criminal networks including a Cambodia-based organization and a money laundering ring that processed $1 billion in illicit funds. The unit also secured regulatory changes including limiting mobile phone subscriptions to three lines per person and implementing an emergency call-blocking system that has

Employment scams more than tripled at 370+ financial institutions across 21 countries in the past 12 months, with a 258% increase outpacing all other fraud types. The scams predominantly occur on mobile devices and include various types such as investment schemes (averaging $6,600 per case), purchase fraud, and romance scams, with researchers identifying specific behavioral patterns like active phone calls and unusual payment recipients that banks can use to detect and prevent losses. The article also highlights organized scam operations globally, including compounds in Nigeria, and a particularly severe variant targeting minors through financial sextortion that has resulted in at least 36 documented U.S. teen suicides since 2021.