The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) announced today they convened the first Fraud Disruption Conference to work on efforts to combat a type of fraud commonly known as “pig butchering.” It is estimated that Americans are scammed out of billions per year, making this a top law enforcement priority.
This is the first of a series of Fraud Disruption conferences the CFTC will host with these and other partners to discuss various financial frauds to explore new avenues to combat or disrupt the scams.
“It is devastating to hear countless stories of everyday Americans being targeted and defrauded by global criminal organizations,” said Chairman Behnam. “It has been a longstanding priority of mine to reenergize and grow our customer protection initiatives to combat retail fraud and protect the most vulnerable among us. I thank our CFTC staff for their dedication, and our longstanding partners at the Department of Justice and all others involved. By working together, we can tackle this problem.”
“More than 300 federal regulators and law enforcement officials from more than 15 federal agencies (listed below) joined the CFTC today to develop measurable strategies to fight this scam that has defrauded Americans of their entire life savings,” said Office of Customer Education and Outreach (OCEO) Director Melanie Devoe. “This is one of many scams working groups will discuss at future gatherings with the ultimate goal of working collaboratively to help Americans protect themselves from this and other financial frauds.”
The working group addressed strategies to prevent victimization; using technology to disrupt the fraud; and collaboration on enforcement efforts. Several agencies also collaborated on an anti-victimization messaging campaign to warn Americans to remain vigilant against emerging fraud threats.
In addition to speakers from law enforcement and regulatory agencies, participants heard remarks from CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam and DOJ NCET Director Claudia Quiroz.
Agencies below were among the participants:
Federal Bureau of Investigations
Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia
U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts
U.S. Department of the Treasury
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
U.S. Postal Inspection Service
U.S. Secret Service
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
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If you or someone you know is a victim of a cryptocurrency investment fraud, report it to www.IC3.gov. In your complaint, please include as much information as possible in your report, including names of investment platforms, cryptocurrency addresses and transaction hashes, bank account information, and names and contact information of suspected scammers. Maintain copies of all communications with scammers and records of financial transactions.
