FinCEN tallies $12.7 billion in crypto scam losses across 33,000 reports from financial institutions

FinCEN said the filings helped federal investigators because of how little any one filer could see: institutions typically had visibility into only one phase of a scam's lifecycle ^[6]. Banks described the point at which they noticed anything, telling investigators they "often detected schemes when a victim sent funds to an [financial institution] in the digital asset sector to purchase digital assets, or when a customer sent a wire transfer to a scam-affiliated beneficiary, frequently referencing digital asset investments" ^[9].

September 2023 through December 2025 is 28 months, so 33,000 reports average about 1,180 a month ^[20]. FinCEN said it received nearly 11 percent more reports each month than the month prior ^[5]. Held for twelve months, that rate multiplies monthly volume by about 3.5 ^[22]. The agency ties the rising rate of suspected scam activity to schemes expanding beyond centers in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos ^[4].

The sector figures do not reconcile to the headline number. Cryptocurrency firms identified about $5.5 billion in suspected scam activity ^[7]. More traditional banks reported about $6.4 billion in potential fraud ^[8]. That is $11.9 billion, roughly $800 million below the $12.7 billion the study attributes to cryptocurrency investment scams ^[21]. The two sets are labelled as suspected activity and potential fraud, and they are two vantage points on overlapping flows.

Age-based triage reaches a quarter of this victim pool. Adults over 60 accounted for about 25 percent of all reports and were not overrepresented in the victim pool, which FinCEN reads as other age groups being scammed at similar rates ^[10].

Some of the strongest tells sit outside payments. Victims submitted applications for loans and second mortgages as part of their participation in a scam ^[11]. One victim withdrew almost $150,000 from his retirement account, took out a personal loan and took out lines of credit on his home to send funds to a scammer, and was denied personal loans twice, saying he needed the money to invest in a venture touted by his digital romantic partner ^[12]. The report also cited a filing from the digital asset sector: "[A financial institution] involved in the digital assets sector reported an older adult victim transferred nearly $640,000 from her retirement fund to send to a suspected scammer in connection with an apparent digital asset investment scheme" ^[13].

Most filings named Ethereum, Tether and USD Coin, at least 18 other coins appeared, and FinCEN said scammers almost always exchanged stolen funds for USDT ^[14]. Most victims worked out what had happened only when they were asked to pay a fee to get their money back, and investigators found cases where the scammers returned posing as an asset recovery service ^[15].

"The transnational criminal organizations behind these scams exploit both emerging technologies and human vulnerabilities, resulting in devastating financial losses for innocent American victims," Treasury official Gene Lange said ^[16]. Treasury wants institutions to be more vigilant in spotting and reporting schemes run by overseas scam centers ^[19]. As described, the alert carries no new filing requirement and no deadline.

Where the filings do land is enforcement. Days after the report, the US government took action against Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based illicit marketplace that helped scammers launder billions ^[17]. Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, said Xinbi was sanctioned because it became the go-to platform for Southeast Asia scam compounds after the earlier US takedown of Huione, and that more than $36 billion was laundered on it ^[18].