NATIONWIDE — NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES FROZE $2.2 MILLION in cryptocurrency stolen by scammers. On Thursday, Jan. 9, James filed a lawsuit against a group of scammers who offered fake employment opportunities outside the state. James is suing to recover cryptocurrency valued at $2.2 million that was stolen from victims in the remote job scam. Her office, together with the U.S. Secret Service and the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, found that scammers sent text messages claiming to help find remote jobs and tricked New Yorkers into depositing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency accounts. The scammers promised financial compensation if they opened a cryptocurrency account, deposited cryptocurrency and began reviewing products on fake websites that replicated legitimate brands. James aims to recover the frozen cryptocurrency for defrauded victims, requiring the scammers to pay penalties, restitution and damages, as well as ceasing the scam grift.

The Office of the Attorney General found that scammers required their victims to maintain a cryptocurrency account equal to or greater than the price of the products they were reviewing, assuring the victims that were not purchasing the products but rather that the account balances would help “legitimize” the data they were generating. The scammers also falsely promised their victims that the original payments would be reimbursed with commission.

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