U.S. Secret Service Declares War on Virtual Asset Crimes

As scams exploiting virtual assets (cryptocurrencies) emerge as a global social issue, the United States Secret Service (TSA) is taking action.

According to Bloomberg News on the 6th (Korea time), the Global Investigative Operations Center (GOIC) under the U.S. Secret Service announced it would expand its investigation network for virtual asset crime cases.

The Secret Service uses methods such as open-source intelligence, IP tracking, and blockchain analysis to track virtual asset crimes. Through these efforts, over the past decade, the GIOC has retrieved virtual assets worth $400 million (about ₩5.5 billion) from criminal cases.

The Secret Service has also been stepping up cooperation with investigative agencies in various countries. In particular, it is expanding its investigative network focused on regions experiencing a surge in virtual asset crimes, such as Bermuda, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.

As virtual assets have soared in the past ten years, crime techniques targeting them have also diversified. The most common method is luring victims into transferring funds through fraudulent investment websites promising high returns.

Recently, romance scams involving virtual assets (where an online acquaintance wins someone’s trust and then asks for money) have surged in Korea as well, prompting the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) to issue consumer warnings. The FSS advised, “If a foreign acquaintance you met on social media (SNS) recommends coin investments, always suspect a scam.”