The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) found approximately $12.7 billion in financial crime activity. It linked the activity to suspected digital asset investment scams operated through several overseas scam centers.
FinCEN reviewed 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025. Victims that were impacted were found across all 50 US states and many territories. The regulator said digital asset investment scams are one of the most significant fraud threats facing Americans in today’s economy. These FinCEN findings point to a much greater issue than simple isolated online fraud. Scam networks rely on digital asset investment scams to receive, move, and disguise illicit proceeds.
How Digital Asset Investment Scams Operate
Digital asset investment scams often start with social engineering instead of an obvious suspicious financial transaction. FinCEN says criminals often use assumed identities to pose as romantic partners, new friends, or potential business contacts. As a result, victims are then encouraged to transfer money into fraudulent digital asset investment opportunities. They do this through websites or mobile applications designed to imitate real investment services.
These investment scams are largely linked to transnational criminal organizations that are operating industrial-scale scam compounds across Southeast Asia. The networks use large groups of criminal actors and supporting service providers to target victims and scale their operations. However, targeting victims is only one part of the operation. Overseas scam centers depend on wider criminal infrastructure capable of moving and laundering the proceeds.
The Criminal Infrastructure Behind Overseas Scam Centers
The most shocking part of FinCEN’s findings was the infrastructure supporting overseas scam centers. Operators have been using so-called guarantee marketplaces. These are online markets where criminal groups can purchase services such as account creation, phishing, and money laundering support. These services allow scam networks to outsource key parts of their operations and function more like organized commercial ecosystems than isolated fraud groups.
As a result, professional money launderers play a particularly important role by establishing financial accounts and shell companies to move funds through wider laundering networks. These proceeds are then integrated into the formal financial system through money mule networks, stablecoin transfers, and digital asset exchanges outside the United States. This laundering stage is where scam activity can begin to intersect with regulated financial institutions, making the detection of connected risk indicators increasingly important.
FinCEN Flags New Scam Center Risk Indicators
The regulator also issued an alert to financial institutions alongside its analysis. It urged firms to find, stop, and report any suspicious activities associated with overseas scam centers. This is crucial as there is rarely one transaction or customer characteristic that effectively proves criminal activity.
When multiple signals appear together, suspicious activity becomes clearer. This includes any unusual relationships with digital asset platforms, fast movement of funds, use of shell companies, possible money mule behavior, or transfers connected to jurisdictions and entities associated with scam operations.
The lesson is that digital asset investment scams require firms to look for patterns rather than individual transactions. This guidance emphasizes combinations of behaviors, jurisdictions, and transaction patterns rather than relying on a single indicator of suspicious activity.
Why Identity Checks Cannot Capture The Full Risk
The issue is also the assumption that any successful identity verification immediately means that a customer is low risk. Scam networks thrive on stolen or synthetic identities, genuine individuals acting as money mules, or real-looking corporate structures to move funds. An account holder can be real, while the purpose of the account remains illicit.
Identity verification can figure out who a person is. It cannot determine what risk that person or business might present later on. This is why ongoing customer due diligence is essential, particularly when an initially legitimate account later becomes connected to suspicious activity.
Digital Asset Investment Scams and AML Are Converging
Fraud prevention and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls are virtually impossible to separate. Though digital asset investment scams generate the initial proceeds, the funds still largely depend on real financial infrastructure to be moved.
Fraud teams may find the initial scam, while AML teams find the accounts, entities, and transactions used to move the proceeds. Both teams may be observing different stages of the same criminal network.
For regulated businesses, fragmented controls are hard to justify. More importantly, recent enforcement and regulatory cases much like this one from FinCEN reinforced the same theme. Regulators are more interested in whether firms can connect risk information and act on it effectively. Recent enforcement and regulatory cases have reinforced the same theme that regulators expect firms to connect risk information well and act on it effectively.
What Compliance Teams Can Learn from FinCEN’s Findings
FinCEN says digital asset investment scams show that identity assurance must sit alongside risk-based due diligence, AML screening, and ongoing monitoring across the full customer lifecycle. Several practical lessons stand out:
- Treat onboarding as the start of the risk assessment process, as customer risk profiles can change over time after an account is opened.
- Look for a mix of risk signals such as identity, transaction patterns, and exposure, as they are much more valuable when assessed together.
- Do not overlook money mule risk because overseas scam centers can exploit genuine people and real accounts.
- Use ongoing monitoring to detect any new information, changes, or exposure emerging after onboarding.
Moreover, FinCEN strongly encourages financial institutions to participate in voluntary information sharing under Section 314 (b) of the USA PATRIOT Act, which allows institutions to share information regarding activities that may involve money laundering or terrorist activity while receiving safe harbor protections from liability.
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