US government sanctions Philippines firm over massive crypto scam infrastructure

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based firm allegedly at the center of a vast cyber fraud network enabling cryptocurrency scams. 

Funnull is accused of providing technical infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites linked to so-called “pig butchering” scams — complex social engineering schemes where fraudsters pose as romantic or financial partners to coax victims into fake crypto investments.

U.S. victims have reported more than $200 million in losses associated with Funnull-linked sites, with an average individual loss of over $150,000. Its administrator, Chinese national Liu Lizhi, was also sanctioned, according to the Treasury Department.

The sanctions, issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control under Executive Orders 13694 and 14144, were coordinated with the FBI. The bureau is releasing a cybersecurity advisory to help private-sector partners identify and take down sites tied to Funnull’s infrastructure.

“These actions reflect our commitment to disrupting the networks that power cybercrime and target Americans,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said.

Crypto scamming and phishing 

According to Treasury officials, Funnull purchased IP addresses in bulk from cloud service providers and resold them to scammers hosting fake investment platforms and phishing sites. It also used domain generation algorithms to mass-produce web addresses and provided design templates, helping cybercriminals impersonate legitimate financial services.

In 2024, Funnull reportedly tampered with a code repository used by developers to secretly reroute web traffic from legitimate sites to scams and gambling platforms, some linked to Chinese money laundering operations.

Liu Lizhi allegedly managed operations at Funnull, including overseeing staff who assigned domains to scammers and maintained infrastructure supporting fraud, phishing, and illicit gambling.

The Treasury’s action follows a September 2023 alert by its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network warning of pig butchering scams and their ties to Southeast Asian crime groups exploiting victims of labor trafficking to carry out fraud.