U.S. authorities have restrained more than $700 million in cryptocurrency and seized over 500 fraudulent investment websites, as part of a coordinated crackdown on large-scale online scam networks operating across Southeast Asia.

The enforcement action, announced on 23 April, also led to the seizure of a Telegram channel used to recruit workers into scam operations, alongside charges against two Chinese nationals accused of running fraud centers in Myanmar and Cambodia.

Crackdown targets industrial-scale scam operations

According to investigators, the operation focused on so-called “pig butchering” schemes, where victims are gradually manipulated into investing in fake platforms before being defrauded of large sums.

Authorities…