Manhattan District Attorney (DA)’s Office has frozen more than $1.3 million in cryptocurrency “during fraud investigations conducted over the past ten months.” The authority said: “We are returning that money to the victims of these schemes — while raising awareness to prevent future fraud.”

$1.3 Million in Cryptocurrency Frozen

Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg announced Thursday that his office has “frozen more than $1.3 million in cryptocurrency during fraud investigations conducted over the past ten months.”

Bragg detailed, “Using our blockchain analysis expertise, our investigators, prosecutors, and specialized cryptocurrency analysts were able to locate and freeze more than $1.3 million of stolen cryptocurrency in the past 10 months alone,” elaborating:

While many of these cyberthieves are overseas and currently out of our reach, the cryptocurrency they stole is not. We are returning that money to the victims of these schemes — while raising awareness to prevent future fraud.

The announcement adds that cryptocurrency worth $200,000 was seized and is now held in the DA’s accounts.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office explained that crypto scams involving romance, bitcoin ATMs, imposters, remote desktop downloads, and fake account balance screenshots have become increasingly popular.

A trending scam involving cryptocurrency that has duped many investors worldwide is called “pig butchering.” In recent months, several U.S. authorities have warned about the rising popularity of this type of scam.

What do you think about the Manhattan DA’s Office freezing cryptocurrency with a plan to return funds to fraud victims? Let us know in the comments section below.

Kevin Helms

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

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