Crypto thieves behind $2.2 million scam to be served lawsuit via NFT

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a new lawsuit on Thursday that seeks to recover $2.2 million in frozen stablecoins from an alleged ring of scammers targeting New Yorkers looking for remote work opportunities. 

While the alleged scammers' identities are currently unknown, James' lawsuit describes a sophisticated network that recruited victims by claiming to offer remote work opportunities before guiding them through depositing stablecoins into a wallet controlled by the scammers. 

Victims were told the deposits were necessary in order to perform the job and receive compensation. However, the lawsuit claims, "This compensation, supposedly to be paid in stablecoins, was never real and deposits victims supposedly made into their 'working accounts' in reality simply went into wallets that [the alleged scammers] owned and/or controlled." 

Nearly $2.2 million worth of USDT and USDC stablecoins has been frozen in scammer-controlled wallets, according to the lawsuit, which seeks to reclaim that sum plus damages and legal fees from the alleged scammers, as well as barring them from repeating the scam. The lawsuit names several victims who were defrauded out of $100,000 or more, such as Ally, a hotel receptionist living in New York's Nassau County, and Mell, a 31-year-old teacher from Queens. 

Notably, James plans on serving the alleged scammers the lawsuit via an NFT airdropped into the scammer-controlled wallets. "Service by NFT will provide the scammers with notice of the litigation by giving them a link to an [Office of the Attorney General] website containing all of the pleadings," according to the Office of the Attorney General's press release . "No other state or federal regulator has served a lawsuit using this method before."

The alleged scam is similar to other so-called pig-butchering scams , which saw a notable rise in 2024. In a pig-butchering scam, the scammer often forms a complex relationship with the victim in order to extract the most money, with the scammer often posing as a romantic interest or a professional recruiter. When victims flag issues with withdrawing their deposits, they're often told to deposit more funds in order to resolve issues, maximizing the scammers' bounty. 

"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," James said.