The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said financial institutions reported activity tied to more than $12.7 billion in digital-asset investment scams run largely from compounds in Cambodia, Laos and Burma. FinCEN published an alert and analysis this week based on 33,904 reports covering September 2023 through December 2025, according to Decrypt’s report on the figures.
The Scale of the Filing Data
Some 1,300 institutions filed the reports. Money services businesses, mostly crypto firms, filed 55% and flagged $5.5 billion, while banks filed 41% and flagged $6.4 billion; securities firms accounted for the remaining $784.5 million. Monthly reported sums rose 18% on average, from 590 reports worth $485.7 million in October 2023 to 2,482 worth $833.5 million in December 2025. FinCEN cautioned that the climb may partly reflect wider adoption of the search term from its earlier 2023 alert.
Where the Money Flows
Scammers used at least 22 digital assets, most often Ethereum, USDT and USDC, and rarely relied on invented tokens. Blockchain analysis showed proceeds were almost always swapped into stablecoins, almost exclusively USDT, before being moved onward. FinCEN also noted elder exploitation appeared in roughly a quarter of the reports, and it pointed victims to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline given the self-harm risk after a fraud is discovered.
The Compound Model Spreads
The compounds sit mostly in Cambodia, Laos and Burma and are staffed by people the United Nations numbers in the hundreds of thousands, many trafficked through fake job advertisements. Interpol has warned the model is spreading beyond Southeast Asia. The filing data adds to a pattern of large seizures, including the U.S. seizure of bitcoin tied to high-profile scam operations, as authorities work to interdict proceeds flowing through stablecoin rails.
Recovery Efforts Lag Behind
FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program has interdicted $1.8 billion since 2015 and recovered just over $1 billion for 5,790 American victims, illustrating how little of the reported sums is ultimately returned. Losses were often financed from retirement accounts, home-equity lines, second mortgages and personal loans. One woman sent nearly $640,000 from her retirement fund, while another lost more than $1 million over six months, the analysis found.
