Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC), is taking actions against a Philippines based company that has been accused of facilitating a popular cryptocurrency investment scam.
The Treasury Department has issued a press release stating that Funnull Technology Inc. faces US sanctions because it allegedly provided computer infrastructure for hundreds of thousands websites involved in scams involving pig butchering.
The perpetrators of the pig-butchering scam use false identities to establish online relationships with unaware individuals in order to introduce them to fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. The scheme is largely carried out by criminal organizations in Southeast Asia, who exploit victims of human trafficking.
Funnull purportly purchases IP addresses from cloud service providers and then sells them to cybercriminals for hosting scam websites and malicious platforms.
It also offers services to help bad actors impersonate well-known brands. They can quickly switch to another domain name or IP address once the legitimate provider tries to shut down the website.
Funnull purchased and modified a collection of web developer codes in 2014 to direct visitors to legitimate websites to online scams and gambling sites. Some of these sites are linked to Chinese criminal money-laundering operations.
Treasury Department claims that Funnull is connected to most of the reported crypto investment scams. US victims say they lost over $200 million in these scams, which is an average loss of $150,000 for each individual.
OFAC also sanctions Funnull’s administrator, Chinese Liu Lizhi. Liu Lizhi was in possession documents containing information on the employees of Funnull, such as their performance, and how they were progressing with tasks.
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This article US Authorities Sanction Philippines Based Firm for Allegedly providing Computer Infrastructure for Cryptopig Butchering Schemes first appeared on The ICD.
