The U.S. Department of Justice’s Scam Center Strike Force has announced charges against six Africa-based individuals, with connections to China and Southeast Asia, who allegedly targeted Americans with fake Nonfungible Token (NFT) investment scams.
In a statement announcing the charges on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Ferris Pirro, said it was the latest action against cybercriminals and cryptocurrency investment scammers.
“In the scheme, scammers posed as beautiful women who met victims on dating websites, eventually enlisting them to connect their cryptocurrency wallets to fraudulent websites associated with the NFT investments,” Pirro said.
“Once connected, the scammers willed the victims to continue to fund their cryptocurrency wallets, and then surreptitiously pulled money from the victims’ wallets without their knowledge.”
Such romance scams have been targeting Americans in huge numbers in recent years.
The DOJ said the scams were committed by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and added that some perpetrators moved operations to Africa from Cambodia after law enforcement took action against scam centers there.
800 US Victims
FBI investigators identified 74 cryptocurrency wallets, associated with around 800 American victims.
Pirro said one TCO with connections to China and Malaysia had opened scam compounds in Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa, in early 2025, having moved from Cambodia.
The fake NFT scam was allegedly led by Chui Kok Wa, a Malaysian national, who is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
DOJ said Wa’s phones also included “scripts” for the scammers working for him to use on Americans, and included advice on how to play on a victim’s emotions and use their “feelings for us to get him to invest.”
“Photos are a weapon and a valuable resource; do not use them carelessly,” one of the scripts read.
“Would a beautiful woman send many photos to a man she had just met?” It went on.
“If she did, what kind of woman do you think the men would assume she is? If he asks for photos and you immediately send them, doesn’t that make you seem too casual?”
Also charged were Gislen Neukeu, Shamusa Ninsiima, Clement Mugiraneza, Merveille Mudacumura and Nicodemus Hingima Monyancha.
It is unclear whether the individuals are in custody in Madagascar or have been extradited.
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Heyman, for the District of Alaska, said the scammers targeted people all over the United States.
‘Exploiting the Trust of Americans’
“The defendants allegedly operated a sophisticated fraud scheme from Madagascar, exploiting the trust of Americans to steal their hard-earned money,” Heyman said.
In the statement, the DOJ said tech companies Microsoft, Meta, Google, Tether, TRM, Elliptic, Chainalysis, Infoblox, and Block6IQ had provided assistance to the investigation.
Pirro also announced that OpenAI has committed to working with the Scam Center Strike Force to counter the threat from fraudsters.
Pirro said the Scam Center Strike Force restrained more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency as it targeted Chinese TCOs that moved operations from Asia to Africa and Europe.
“Chinese TCOs are sending scammers into your dating network, your social network, and your messaging applications, all to steal Main Street America’s bank accounts,” Pirro said.
“For the last year, the Strike Force has fought hard against the compounds in Southeast Asia facilitating these scammers, to the tune of $1 billion in cryptocurrency restrained.”
She referred to the scammers as a “cancerous spread” and said the Strike Force would follow them to Africa, India, Europe, and “wherever they try to plant their operations.”
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