Private companies working with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) froze more than $3.8 million in cryptocurrency linked to digital fraud schemes during an international anti-scam operation known as “Disruption Week,” the department said. The campaign, focused largely on criminal networks in Southeast Asia, also led to 63 arrests worldwide and the takedown of core infrastructure used in large-scale online fraud.
Major tech firms join coordinated anti-scam push
The week-long operation brought together firms including Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, SpaceX, Silent Push, TRM Labs, Zenlayer, and cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, which alone froze over $3 million in assets.
Meta coordinated the efforts among the private sector participants, while U.S. agencies such as the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations supplied intelligence on criminal targets. Authorities said the collaboration reflects a more aggressive and technologically sophisticated approach to disrupting cyber-enabled financial crime.
Online fraud infrastructure dismantled
Enforcement partners disabled more than 1.4 million fraudulent online accounts, shut down related servers and hosting infrastructure, and cut off thousands of satellite internet kits used to support the schemes. Several colocation facilities tied to the operations were also taken offline.
During the campaign, the Royal Thai Police Anti-Cyber Scam Center arrested seven suspects in Thailand and identified multiple scam platforms for follow-up investigations by U.S. authorities. Officials said the actions were designed both to disrupt current fraud operations and to prevent future victimization.
Broad international law enforcement alliance
Foreign agencies involved in Disruption Week included the Australian Federal Police, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, New Zealand Police, Royal Thai Police, and the UK National Crime Agency. The DOJ described the initiative as one of the largest cross-border efforts so far against online financial fraud and so-called “pig butchering” schemes.
These operations typically involve long-running social engineering scams in which victims are groomed online and then steered into fraudulent cryptocurrency or investment platforms.
Losses from crypto fraud continue to climb
The DOJ cited FBI data showing that reported losses from cryptocurrency investment scams reached more than $7.2 billion in 2025, a 24% increase from $5.8 billion in 2024 and up from $3.96 billion in 2023. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2025, underscoring the scale of the problem and the mounting pressure on authorities to act.
Officials say many of these schemes are run from compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma near the Thai border. According to U.S. authorities, workers are often lured by fake job offers and then forced to operate fraudulent trading and investment portals targeting victims globally.
Focus on Southeast Asian scam hubs
The emphasis on Southeast Asia reflects the industrial scale of digital fraud originating from the region, particularly the highly organized “pig butchering” networks. Authorities said Disruption Week directly targeted the communications, hosting, and financial rails supporting these hubs, aiming to degrade their capacity to reach new victims and move funds.
By coordinating with social media platforms, cloud providers, satellite internet firms, and blockchain analytics companies, law enforcement agencies attempted to cut through every layer of the fraud chain, from victim contact to payment processing.
Growing risk of asset freezes for digital asset holders
Authorities signaled that the enforcement environment around digital assets is tightening. The DOJ and its partners are increasingly using compliance tools and infrastructure provided by major technology and financial firms to identify and freeze funds suspected of being linked to fraud, even on platforms with strong regulatory reputations.
This means traders using centralized exchanges, digital wallets, or other custodial services may face temporary or permanent access restrictions if platforms receive lawful orders during investigations. The heightened scrutiny reflects a broader strategy to choke off the financial lifelines of scam operations rather than only pursuing individual perpetrators.
What this means for market participants
For those active in cryptocurrencies and related services, reviewing the security, compliance track record, and regulatory posture of platforms used to hold or trade assets is becoming more critical. Authorities are moving toward a model in which any link in the transaction chain can become a control point for enforcement.
The U.S. Treasury has also indicated it wants new legislation to clarify which decentralized finance participants should bear compliance obligations. That signals that oversight is likely to expand beyond traditional exchanges and on-ramp providers to a wider range of services within the digital asset ecosystem.
Key takeaways from “disruption week”
- More than $3.8 million in cryptocurrency tied to fraud was frozen, over 1.4 million fraudulent accounts were disabled, thousands of satellite internet kits were terminated, 63 arrests were made worldwide, and multiple scam infrastructure nodes were shut down, in what authorities describe as one of the most extensive global crackdowns yet on cyber-enabled financial crime.
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