A single crypto wallet processed over $122.5 million in just 10 months. It belonged to a suspected romance scam money launderer, and Interpol found it.
Thai authorities made the discovery during Operation First Light 2026 — a massive global crackdown spanning 97 countries. The results are staggering: 5,811 arrests and $293 million in seized assets.
Here’s how it worked. Scammers built trust with victims through dating apps and social media. Classic pig-butchering playbook. Then they funneled the money into cryptocurrencies and used cross-chain token swaps to hide the trail.
Interpol’s Tomonobu Kaya put it plainly: social engineering scams are a major threat to society, and no single country can fight them alone.
The operation was broader than just crypto. Authorities analyzed over 152,000 cases, blocked more than 31,000 bank accounts, and identified 15,606 suspects. They used Interpol’s payment-freezing system to block illicit transfers across both fiat and virtual assets.
In Palau, 22 people got deported for running hotel-based scam centers that mixed crypto with illegal gambling sites to target victims abroad.
This isn’t an isolated problem. The FBI reported Americans lost over $11 billion to crypto-related scams in 2025 alone, with 181,565 complaints filed. Romance scams — where criminals build relationships before pushing fake investments — are a huge chunk of that.
