NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn District Attorney announced a major cryptocurrency scam case Thursday.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says his team successfully busted an operation that defrauded people across the country of millions of dollars.
The district attorney's office says scammers would target strangers through random text messages, dating websites or other online chat groups and convince them to invest in cryptocurrency through fake websites and apps. The victims would end up losing their entire investment.
One victim says she lost $118,000 to a scammer she met on a dating app.
"He was trying to talk to me about cryptocurrencies because I told him I was going through a divorce... I felt like an idiot. It's like, right now, I'm in a fall. I feel like if I could tell other women, other victims "Don't be fooled. Listen to your instinct," the victim said.
Investigators say one victim's investment was traced to a foreign cryptocurrency exchange account and cashed out by an individual somewhere outside the jurisdiction of the United States.
The Brooklyn prosecutor's office says they were able to seize more than a dozen website domains and three virtual servers associated with the scam operation.
Gonzalez says he established a Virtual Currency Unit in the fall of 2023 after hearing from several Brooklyn residents who said they had been victims of cryptocurrency scams.
The district attorney's office says don't respond to text messages from strangers, don't make cryptocurrency investments based on advice from people you've never met, and never pay more money to try to recover lost investments.
