Secret Service Seizes a Web Domain Used in Furtherance of a Cryptocurrency “Pig Butchering” Scheme

ALBANY, NEW YORK – The U.S. Secret Service has seized a web domain used in a recent cryptocurrency confidence crime known as “pig butchering.”

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; William Mancino, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigative Division of the U.S. Secret Service; and James Bensley, Resident Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Albany Resident Office, made the announcement.

In pig butchering schemes, scammers encounter victims through a variety of ways, including on dating applications and social media websites, and even random text messages masquerading as a wrong number. Scammers initiate relationships with victims and slowly gain their trust, eventually introducing the idea of making a business investment using cryptocurrency. Victims are then directed to other members of the scheme running fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms, where victims are persuaded to invest money. Once the money is sent to the fake investment application, the scammer vanishes, taking all the money with them, often resulting in significant losses for the victim.

According to court records, between about August 2022 and July 2023, scammers induced a Warren County victim to wire monies to the now-seized domain OKEX-NFT.net.  The scammers — using the confidence-building techniques described above — convinced the victim that he/she was investing in a legitimate cryptocurrency opportunity. After the victim transferred investments into the deposit addresses that the scammers provided in connection with the seized domain name, the victim’s funds were immediately transferred through numerous bank accounts in an effort to conceal the source of the funds. In total, the victim lost over $341,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Conger and Rick Belliss represented the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this matter.

Related court documents and information are located on the online docket for the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (available via www.pacer.gov), by searching for Case No. 24-MJ-00038 (DJS).  

If you believe you are a victim of this type of scheme, please contact CryptoFraud@SecretService.gov or IC3.gov to file a report. Please provide detailed information in your report, including any purported investment websites visited, telephone numbers, email accounts, and social media profiles used by scammers, and any cryptocurrency addresses, transaction hashes, and dates of transactions. Your responses are voluntary. Based on the information provided, you may be contacted by the Secret Service or another law enforcement agency and asked to provide additional information.

This case is part of the Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative. The mission of the Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving elders can call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-372-8311.