President Trump’s administration has delivered a major blow against industrial-scale scam networks targeting Americans by restraining over $52 million in cryptocurrency, sanctioning a key Chinese-language criminal marketplace, and collaborating with foreign partners to dismantle 13 Chinese-run scam compounds in Madagascar.
This coordinated operation targets the infrastructure that enables fraud rings to recruit victims, build fake investment platforms, move stolen funds, and prey on individuals worldwide.
At the center of the effort was Xinbi Guarantee, a Telegram-based marketplace the Treasury Department states has processed at least $24 billion in transactions since 2022. Xinbi functions as the criminal ecosystem: government sources indicate vendors operating through its platform provide money laundering services, stolen personal information, and technology for fraudulent websites—critical components of scam operations.
The operation reveals how these networks operate as a supply chain. One group acquires stolen identities; another constructs fake trading sites; a third recruits or transports workers into guarded compounds. Money launderers then convert victims’ savings into cryptocurrency and move funds through multiple wallet layers, making each subsequent scam easier to launch.
In a single day, the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force seized or restrained approximately $52 million tied to Xinbi. This included about $12 million in two wallets and assets associated with 47 additional cryptocurrency addresses. The task force has since restrained an estimated $938 million in cryptocurrency across operations.
These figures represent more than digital tokens—they signify money criminal organizations can no longer use to expand operations, purchase victim lists, bribe officials, or fund further attacks.
The Treasury Department designated Xinbi as a transnational criminal organization, severing it from U.S. financial systems and exposing any entity continuing business with it to serious risks. Sanctions notices confirm the marketplace facilitated cyber scams, fraud, and money laundering targeting Americans globally and links it to broader Chinese organized-crime ecosystems operating scam centers across Southeast Asia.
U.S. personnel worked alongside Madagascar authorities to dismantle 13 Chinese-run compounds. Investigators processed roughly 3,200 electronic devices that could identify more victims, operators, and financial pathways. Nearly 400 individuals were arrested, and about 30 alleged Chinese ringleaders were repatriated to China.
The Treasury has also sanctioned Xinbi’s chief executive officer, the company’s founder, and a related Telegram-based group, blocking all U.S.-jurisdiction assets they hold and restricting transactions with them.
The scale of this operation underscores that these networks are not lone hackers but organized enterprises with offices, equipment, managers, technical specialists, and international financial channels. Many workers within scam compounds are themselves trafficking victims held under coercive conditions and forced to manipulate strangers online—while leaders profit from both sides: stealing from victims abroad while exploiting workers on site.
Americans often encounter these schemes through seemingly friendly messages, wrong-number texts, dating profiles, or invitations to exclusive investment opportunities. Relationships develop over days or weeks before victims are directed to fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms where the displayed profits are fake and deposits are real. By the time victims discover the deception, funds may have crossed dozens of wallets and several countries.
According to the Justice Department, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded $8.65 billion in cryptocurrency-related fraud losses in 2025—a figure representing an 89 percent increase from the $4.57 billion reported in 2023. The real damage is often understated because many victims never report incidents due to embarrassment or a lack of awareness that the person they trusted was part of a scripted operation.
President Trump’s Justice and Treasury departments are focusing on root causes: the money, the marketplaces, and the physical compounds. While arresting an individual scammer may stop one operator, freezing assets and dismantling infrastructure disrupts thousands of crimes simultaneously. The fight against these networks remains ongoing as Telegram marketplaces can rebrand, wallet networks shift, and organized crime groups relocate across borders. However, the recent actions—seizing $52 million in a single day, dismantling 13 compounds, and making hundreds of arrests—send a clear signal: the United States is treating these scams not as annoying spam but as organized transnational crime—and going after the system that makes them possible.
