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NY attorney general aims to recover $2.2M for people robbed by phishing scams
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jan 9, 2025
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Photo Illustration by Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
By
Catalina Gonella
Published Jan 9, 2025
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New Yorkers lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to a network of scammers that targeted people who were looking for remote jobs, according to Attorney General Letitia James. In one case, she said, a single New York resident was convinced to hand the scammers more than $100,000.
Now James is suing the still-unidentified alleged scammers, looking to release more than $2.2 million in frozen cryptocurrency funds that she said were bilked from unsuspecting New Yorkers and other people around the country. James is serving them notice by depositing nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, into their digital wallets to alert them to the litigation — a first for a government regulator.
“Deceiving New Yorkers looking to take on remote work and earn money to support their families is cruel and unacceptable,” James said in a statement. “I urge all New Yorkers to be cautious of text messages from unknown senders claiming to offer jobs or other opportunities, and to report any scams to my office.”
According to the lawsuit, scammers used WhatsApp and other messaging apps to lure victims into performing tasks for fake jobs at made-up companies, like reviewing products to supposedly generate data for better marketing practices. In exchange, victims were falsely promised compensation through a convoluted system of salaries, bonuses and commissions, the lawsuit states.
Scammers posing as representatives for the fake companies told victims they needed to open cryptocurrency accounts, and maintain them with amounts equal to the prices of the products they were reviewing, the lawsuit states. It says the victims were told they’d be reimbursed in addition to getting their payments. In reality, the money was being deposited into accounts owned by the scammers, according to the lawsuit.
But when victims tried to pull their money, scammers invented fees requiring them to put more cryptocurrency in, without ever allowing them to withdraw anything, according to the lawsuit.
The office of the attorney general’s investigation was conducted with the U.S. Secret Service and the Queens district attorney’s office. Tether Limited and USDC, the companies where the digital wallets with the stolen money were housed, both agreed to freeze the accounts during the investigation, the attorney general's office said.
Because the accounts have been frozen, the money is now available to be recovered and returned to victims under court approval, the office said.
James urged New Yorkers who believe they may be victims of scams to file online complaints with her office.
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new york city
economy
public safety
Catalina Gonella
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