Social engineering incidents
277 entries spanning 1995 to 2026. Filter by how the attacker reached the human, what it cost, and whether AI was involved.
Prince Group chairman indicted over Cambodian forced-labour pig butchering compounds
Global cryptocurrency investment fraud victims including US consumers (multi-victim campaign) · Cambodia
On 14 October 2025 the Department of Justice unsealed a wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy indictment in Brooklyn against Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of Cambodia's Prince Holding Group, and announced the seizure of approximately 127,271 bitcoin worth about $15 billion. Prosecutors said Prince Group ran dozens of forced-labour scam compounds across Cambodia, ringed with high walls and barbed wire, where trafficked workers were confined and made to run cryptocurrency investment fraud against victims worldwide. One Brooklyn-based network alone handled fraudulent transfers from over 250 New York victims.
US sanctions Myanmar and Cambodia scam compound operators over forced-labour fraud
US, European and Chinese scam victims (multi-victim campaign) · Myanmar and Cambodia
On 8 September 2025 the US Treasury and State Department sanctioned operators of Southeast Asian scam compounds. Nine people and companies were targeted around the Shwe Kokko hub in Myanmar, including Saw Chit Thu and his Chit Linn Myaing entities, She Zhijiang and Yatai International Holdings Group. Four individuals and six entities tied to Cambodian casino operations in Sihanoukville and Bavet were also designated. In October 2025 Myanmar authorities detained over 2,000 suspects at KK Park, and in November 2025 arrested 346 foreign nationals at Shwe Kokko, seizing nearly 10,000 mobile phones.
Interpol Operation Serengeti 2.0 nets 1,209 arrests over BEC and romance fraud
Approximately 88,000 victims across 18 African countries and the UK · Multiple
Interpol announced in August 2025 that Operation Serengeti 2.0, conducted from June to August across 18 African countries and the UK, led to 1,209 arrests, the dismantling of 11,432 malicious infrastructures and the recovery of about $97.4 million. The operation targeted ransomware, business email compromise, online scams and investment fraud affecting some 88,000 victims, with total losses estimated at roughly $485 million.
DOJ moves to forfeit $225M in crypto traced to pig butchering victims
US consumers (multi-victim campaign) · United States
On 18 June 2025 the Department of Justice filed a civil forfeiture complaint seeking over $225 million in USDT laundered from international pig butchering investment scams, described at the time as its largest cryptocurrency seizure of that kind. The filing identified 434 victims, including 60 named victims who lost a combined $19.4 million. Among the traced funds were $3.3 million connected to Shan Hanes, the former Heartland Tri-State Bank chief executive whose $47.1 million embezzlement to pay scammers collapsed the Kansas bank in 2023.
Hong Kong arrests 31 in second deepfake romance fraud ring targeting Southeast Asia
Victims in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia · Hong Kong
Hong Kong police arrested 31 people on 2 and 3 January 2025 over a deepfake-enabled romance and investment fraud syndicate that operated from two premises in Kowloon Bay and took more than HK$34 million (about US$4.37 million) from victims in Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Members were trained to approach targets on dating apps using online photographs of attractive people combined with deepfake technology. It was the second major deepfake fraud bust by Hong Kong authorities in three months.
FBI warns criminals are using generative AI to scale voice-clone and identity fraud
US consumers, including seniors targeted by family-emergency voice clones (multi-victim campaign) · United States
On 3 December 2024 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center published an advisory titled Criminals Use Generative Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Financial Fraud. It documents AI-generated text used for phishing, fake social media profiles and fraudulent investment sites; AI-generated images used for profile photos, fabricated identification documents and disaster imagery for fake charity appeals; and voice and video synthesis used to impersonate relatives, account holders and executives.
Deepfake Elon Musk videos drive crypto investment scams against US consumers
Multiple US consumers · United States
By late 2024 Elon Musk had become the most frequently impersonated figure in deepfake investment fraud, with AI-generated videos of him promoting crypto schemes circulating widely on Facebook and TikTok. CBS News reported in November 2024 on Heidi Swan, a 62-year-old healthcare worker who deposited more than US$10,000 with a fake platform after seeing such a video. Researchers and Deloitte estimated that AI-generated content contributed to more than US$12 billion in US fraud losses in 2023.
Hong Kong police dismantle HK$360M deepfake romance and crypto investment ring
Men across Asia targeted through dating apps · Hong Kong
Hong Kong police announced on 14 October 2024 that they had arrested 27 people, aged 21 to 34, over a deepfake-assisted romance and cryptocurrency investment fraud that took about HK$360 million (US$46 million) from victims across Asia. The syndicate operated from a 4,000-square-foot industrial unit in Hung Hom, recruited digital media graduates to build fake trading platforms, and used AI face-swapping on video calls. Police seized more than 100 phones, cash, computers, luxury watches and training manuals on manipulating victims.
French woman loses EUR 830,000 to an AI-image 'Brad Pitt' romance scam
Private individual in France (identified only as 'Anne') · France
Beginning in February 2023, a 53-year-old French woman known publicly as Anne was drawn into an online relationship with someone posing as actor Brad Pitt. Over about 18 months she sent EUR 830,000, largely after being told he needed money for kidney cancer treatment and that his accounts were frozen by divorce proceedings. AI-generated images of the actor in hospital and a forged passport reinforced the deception. She realised she had been defrauded on seeing genuine photographs of Pitt with his partner, and filed a police complaint; the case became public in January 2025 when French broadcaster TF1 aired and then withdrew her interview.
Ramon 'Hushpuppi' Abbas sentenced for laundering BEC and cyber-heist proceeds
Multiple (New York law firm, a Maltese bank, a Qatari businessman, others) · United States
Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, the Instagram figure known as Ray Hushpuppi, was arrested in Dubai in June 2020, pleaded guilty in April 2021 and was sentenced on November 7, 2022 to 135 months in federal prison with $1,732,841 in restitution. He laundered proceeds of business email compromise frauds, bank cyber-heists and school-financing scams, including about $922,857 induced from a New York law firm and funds from a January 2019 attack on a Maltese bank.
Deepfake of Binance communications chief used to scam crypto projects on video calls
Multiple cryptocurrency projects seeking Binance listings · Multiple countries
In August 2022 Binance disclosed that a 'sophisticated hacking team' had produced a deepfake video likeness of chief communications officer Patrick Hillmann and used it on Zoom calls with representatives of cryptocurrency projects. The impersonator offered help getting tokens listed on Binance and solicited payments and information. Hillmann said several project managers were convinced before the fraud was discovered, and that the clone was built from his publicly available interview footage.
Operation Eagle Sweep: 65 arrests in global BEC disruption
Multiple businesses and individuals (500+ U.S. victims) · United States
Operation Eagle Sweep, announced by the FBI and Justice Department on March 30, 2022, was a three-month coordinated action against business email compromise networks. It produced 65 arrests, including 12 in Nigeria, eight in South Africa, two in Canada and one in Cambodia, with parallel operations by Australia, Japan and Nigeria. The targeted actors were linked to more than 500 U.S. victims and over $51 million in losses. Cases included a Houston laundering network that moved at least $4.5 million to Nigeria.
FTC data: $147.8M in gift card fraud driven by government and business impersonators
US consumers (multi-victim campaign) · United States
An FTC data spotlight published on 8 December 2021 found that consumers filed 39,263 reports of gift card payments to scammers in the first nine months of 2021, with $147.8 million in reported losses. About one in four fraud victims who reported a payment method named gift cards. Target cards accounted for more than twice the losses of any other brand, with a $2,500 median loss, followed by Google Play, Apple, eBay and Walmart. Phone calls were the contact method in 37 percent of cases.
Operation reWired: 281 arrested worldwide in BEC crackdown
Multiple businesses and individuals (global) · United States
Announced on September 10, 2019, Operation reWired was a four-month international action against business email compromise. It resulted in 281 arrests, 74 in the United States and 207 abroad, including 167 in Nigeria, 18 in Turkey and 15 in Ghana. Authorities seized approximately $3.7 million and disrupted around $118 million in fraudulent transfers. One case involved a community college and an energy company that lost about $5 million, of which banks froze roughly $3.6 million.
Entry types: Incident, Campaign, Benchmark. Aggregate agency statistics are kept as benchmarks and are never summed into the counters. Methodology. Machine-readable version of this page: global-social-engineering-impact-da.vercel.app/api/incidents?vector=Romance+%2F+Investment+Scam.