The Scamdemic: U.S. launches Scam Center Strike Force — but will it work with real investigators?

 

For more than five years, I’ve been fighting an uphill battle against crypto and investment fraud — exposing Ponzi schemes, tracing money trails, and naming the people behind them. I’ve called this global phenomenon exactly what it is: a Scamdemic.

“Scam centers are creating a generational wealth transfer from Main Street America into the pockets of Chinese organized crime. As the prosecuting office in the nation’s capital, my office has the authority to charge foreign defendants and seize foreign property,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “President Trump wants the United States to be the global center of the world’s cryptocurrency industry. So it is absolutely crucial that Americans understand the safe use of this commodity. We will expose and prosecute the criminals who would abuse their trust so that all Americans can feel secure in their investments.”

U.S. Attorney Pirro specifically called on U.S. corporations to partner in the initiative. “Working together in public-private partnership, we must secure the U.S. infrastructure, which is being used as an instrument to defraud Americans in these scams.”

Now, in a twist of irony, the U.S. Department of Justice has adopted the same term. During the launch of their new Scam Center Strike Force, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stood at a podium and declared: “This Scamdemic is a generational wealth transfer from Main Street, USA, into the hands of Chinese organized crime.”

But let’s not overlook the role that America itself plays in enabling this global Scamdemic. States like Wyoming have become safe havens for scammers, offering fast-track company registration with minimal scrutiny. Thousands of fraudulent crypto ventures, shell entities, and unregulated “financial” businesses have been incorporated there — giving international scam operations a veneer of legitimacy under U.S. law. These registrations are then used to lure victims, open bank accounts, and bypass due diligence that would normally expose their crimes. Until the U.S. cracks down on these domestic loopholes, the same system that claims to be fighting fraud will continue to quietly facilitate it.

I should probably be flattered. For years I’ve used that same word to describe what’s happening — and now, the world’s most powerful justice department is using it too. But I’m also cautious. Because after half a decade of working on the frontlines, documenting victims and tracing stolen funds, this is the first time I’ve even heard of this so-called Strike Force. If they’ve really been active, why haven’t they reached out to those of us who’ve been doing this work all along?

For this Strike Force to have any real impact, it also needs to go after the platforms that make this Scamdemic possible. Zoom, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube continue to provide megaphones for scammers and Ponzi promoters to recruit victims in plain sight. These companies profit from the traffic and advertising while ignoring the destruction left behind.

If the Department of Justice is serious, I could hand them a list today of YouTubers and online promoters actively pushing fraudulent “investment opportunities” that trace directly back to Southeast Asian scam compounds. Individuals such as Christopher “Chris” Delgado (aka Lord Delgado), Quentin Bradford, Marshonda Henderson, Jaime Soriano, Anthony DeLoatch, Megan Lynch, Ragan Lynch, Stephen McCullah, Scott Morris, Gary Wood, David Chandler, Troy Rejda, Marcus Davis, Mike Lucas, Mike Donaldson, Harvey Joseph Dockstader Jr, Mai Summer Vue, Grace Uzomba, Tami Jackson and Jharol Smith are all part of that problem.

These are people publicly marketing unregistered investment schemes to Americans while posing as mentors or financial educators. They should be questioned and held accountable — and if they continue promoting these scams without being licensed financial advisors, they must face real consequences.

A government finally catching up

Pirro described what many of us have been warning about for years. Massive scam compounds across Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines are defrauding victims in industrial quantities. Recruited under false pretences, trafficked workers are forced to run fake trading platforms and romance-investment scams around the clock.

These operations are highly coordinated — combining human trafficking, money laundering, and cyber fraud under one roof. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that these syndicates now generate tens of billions of dollars a year.

According to the FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report, Americans alone lost over $9 billion to online investment fraud — a 43% jump from the year before. Globally, the numbers are likely far higher. Many victims never come forward out of shame or confusion.

So yes, this Scamdemic has been real for years. It’s just that governments are only now acknowledging it.

What the Strike Force says it’s doing

The newly formed Scam Center Strike Force brings together the Department of Justice, the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the Treasury Department, and the State Department. Its goal: to identify, charge, and dismantle transnational scam networks, and to trace and seize the money stolen from victims.

Pirro claims her office has already seized over $400 million, filed actions to forfeit another $80 million, and plans to return the funds to victims. She also said they’ve seized websites and communications equipment, including satellite terminals and accounts used by scam compounds to connect to the internet.

At the same event, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) — a Burmese armed group accused of running and protecting scam centres. Treasury official Bradley T. Smith made the consequences clear:

“It is now illegal for those sanctioned to move money, buy goods, or purchase services in the United States, and as a practical matter to engage in any significant financial transaction around the world.”

That’s an important point — because sanctions don’t just freeze assets, they make it criminal to do business with these networks anywhere in the global financial system.

The whole-of-government model

According to the TRM Labs analysis, this Strike Force represents an “all-tools” or whole-of-government model that integrates criminal indictments, sanctions, financial intelligence, and diplomacy. Each agency plays a role:

• The DOJ handles criminal charges and forfeitures.

• The FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations carry out field operations and crypto tracing.

• OFAC and FinCEN use sanctions and financial pressure to cut off laundering channels.

• The State Department applies diplomatic leverage and visa bans to disrupt corruption in the host countries.

Pirro said: “Our best and brightest are being brought together to attack this problem by securing our infrastructure, returning money to victims, and bringing perpetrators to justice.”

It sounds impressive — on paper. But I’ve seen countless “task forces” launched over the years, each promising cross-agency cooperation, only for them to vanish quietly after the press conference ends.

“Working with the private sector” — but who exactly?

Pirro made repeated references to “working with the private sector” and said that Meta, Microsoft, and AARP had already offered to collaborate. That’s good to hear — but it raises a question: what about those of us who’ve been fighting this Scamdemic for years outside government walls?

Independent investigators, journalists, and OSINT researchers have been tracing scams, identifying networks, and warning the public long before governments paid attention. My own database documents thousands of leads, wallet addresses, and scam domains across multiple countries.

If the Strike Force truly intends to build a public-private partnership, it can’t stop at Big Tech. It must also involve those of us who’ve already mapped the landscape. I’m more than ready to share my data — if they’re willing to engage.

Learning from the Prince Group case

The DOJ’s case against Cambodia’s Prince Group shows what this type of coordination can achieve. In 2025, prosecutors unsealed indictments against Chen Zhi, the group’s chairman, for wire-fraud and money-laundering conspiracy linked to forced-labour scam compounds. Investigators traced 127,271 Bitcoin — worth roughly $15 billion — making it the largest forfeiture in U.S. history.

Alongside that, OFAC sanctioned 146 targets, and FinCEN designated Cambodia’s Huione Group as a primary money-laundering concern, cutting it off from the U.S. financial system. The case proved that when every lever is pulled together — indictments, forfeiture, sanctions, and diplomacy — billions can be frozen before they vanish.

That’s the kind of integrated approach we need to see regularly, not occasionally.

The human cost of the Scamdemic

Behind every statistic is someone’s life destroyed. Pirro shared the story of a Virginia man who lost $272,000 to a crypto scam before taking his own life. “There wasn’t enough money left even to pay for his headstone,” his daughter said.

The Secret Service reported more than 3,000 victims contacting the agency in 2025 alone, with $495 million in cryptocurrency seized or frozen. In one case, agents traced 500 websites linked to a dating-app scam, recovering $66 million. Another case led to 120 new victims coming forward after the first seizure was publicised — proof that public visibility matters.

As one investigator put it: “This is a Scamdemic — an epidemic of global fraud that preys on the human need for trust.”

A cautious welcome

So, am I hopeful about the Scam Center Strike Force? Yes — cautiously. Any coordinated effort to disrupt scam networks is worth supporting. But I’ve been doing this too long to take government promises at face value.

The real test will be whether they work with independent investigators, share data, and engage with the OSINT community that’s been exposing this ecosystem for years. Until that happens, this looks like another bureaucratic operation built around the same agencies that ignored these crimes for far too long.

If the DOJ wants to make a real difference, they should start by listening to the people who’ve already been doing the heavy lifting.

I’ll be watching — and I’ll be waiting for that call.

Disclaimer: How This Investigation Was Conducted

This investigation relies entirely on OSINT — Open Source Intelligence — meaning every claim made here is based on publicly available records, archived web pages, corporate filings, domain data, social media activity, and open blockchain transactions. No private data, hacking, or unlawful access methods were used. OSINT is a powerful and ethical tool for exposing scams without violating privacy laws or overstepping legal boundaries.

About the Author

I’m DANNY DE HEK, a New Zealand–based YouTuber, investigative journalist, and OSINT researcher. I name and shame individuals promoting or marketing fraudulent schemes through my channel, DANNY DE HEK INVESTIGATIONS. Every video I produce exposes the people behind scams, Ponzi schemes, and MLM frauds — holding them accountable in public.

My PODCAST is an extension of that work. It’s distributed across 18 major platforms — including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, and iHeartRadio — so when scammers try to hide, my content follows them everywhere. If you prefer listening to my investigations instead of watching, you’ll find them on every major podcast service.

You can BOOK ME for private consultations or SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, where I share first-hand experience from years of exposing large-scale fraud and helping victims recover.

“Stop losing your future to financial parasites. Subscribe. Expose. Protect.”

My work exposing crypto fraud has been featured in:

• Bloomberg Documentary (2025): A 20-minute exposé on Ponzi schemes and crypto card fraud

• News.com.au (2025): Profiled as one of the leading scam-busters in Australasia

• OpIndia (2025): Cited for uncovering Pakistani software houses linked to drug trafficking, visa scams, and global financial fraud

• The Press / Stuff.co.nz (2023): Successfully defeated $3.85M gag lawsuit; court ruled it was a vexatious attempt to silence whistleblowing

• The Guardian Australia (2023): National warning on crypto MLMs affecting Aussie families

• ABC News Australia (2023): Investigation into Blockchain Global and its collapse

• The New York Times (2022): A full two-page feature on dismantling HyperVerse and its global network

• Radio New Zealand (2022): “The Kiwi YouTuber Taking Down Crypto Scammers From His Christchurch Home”

• Otago Daily Times (2022): A profile on my investigative work and the impact of crypto fraud in New Zealand

The truth doesn’t fear lawyers — only fraudsters do.