According to Cointelegraph, the U.S. government is seeking to return $7 million to victims of social engineering fraud who have been deceived into remitting money to fake cryptocurrency investment platforms. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the East Virginia, the fraud case involves scammers first contacting the victims and gaining trust, and then directing them to a website that disguises as legal cryptocurrency investment platforms. Once the victim makes a deposit, the funds are transferred through more than 75 bank accounts, whose names belong to the shell companies, and then transferred abroad in a "deceptive way", which appears to be domestic remittances, although in fact the funds are transferred to banks outside the United States. When victims try to withdraw money, criminals force them to send money again by means of the victims’ need to pay taxes for the supposed proceeds. The Secret Service seized part of the funds from a foreign bank in 2023 and initiated a civil confiscation process by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court. However, the bank also filed claims for the funds, and the U.S. government eventually reached an agreement to return $7 million of the seizure funds to the victims.