The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) hosted an exchange bringing together financial institutions, digital asset industry representatives, law enforcement and other government partners to share information on transnational scam centers and their supporting financial networks. Financial institutions were urged to remain vigilant and review the agency’s existing alert and financial trend analysis to help detect and report related suspicious activity.
Scam centers facilitate fraud targeting U.S. and international victims and may involve human trafficking, forced labor and complex money laundering networks. FinCEN’s earlier analysis identified approximately USD 12.7 billion in suspected digital asset investment scam activity across 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed between Sept. 8, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2025. That amount reflects reported financial activity and may include attempted transactions and duplicate reporting.
The existing alert describes how operators use professional money launderers and online guarantee marketplaces to move proceeds through digital assets and back into the traditional financial system. Warning signs include transactions without an apparent lawful purpose involving marketplace addresses, efforts by payment providers to conceal their location or ownership, and stablecoins advertised as resistant to freezing. Institutions filing related suspicious activity reports should include the term “FIN-2026-SCAMCENTERS” in the designated filing note and narrative.