20-Year-Old Crypto Wallet Has Moved $123M in Romance Fraud Money: Interpol Says

A 20-year-old cryptocurrency wallet moved more than $122.5 million in just 10 months as part of a conspiracy to steal money stolen from victims of love-fraud, Interpol said, in one of the standout cases from sweeping the world anti-fraud service.

Thai police arrested two in the case, according to Interpolwhich said that the workers entered the money and mixed crypto-currencies and used cross-symbol exchanges, moving money between different blockchains, to confuse where the money went.

The arrests were part of Operation First Light 2026, a coordinated crackdown that began between January and the end of April in 97 countries and territories. In all, authorities arrested 5,811 people, seized $293 million in cash and identified more than 142,000 people, Interpol said, freezing 31,014 bank accounts and investigating more than 152,000 cases. Some of these signals relied on I-GRIP, Interpol’s stop-payment system that can stop the flow of traditional currency and physical assets.

Terrorist groups “use the psychology of people to do what they want,” said Tomonobu Kaya, head of Interpol’s financial center, adding that no country can be safe unless all come together.

Pig killing and crypto laundering

Romance scams, often referred to as “killing pigs,” often begin with a stranger forming a relationship weeks or months before they begin pursuing a cryptocurrency scam. As soon as the victims’ money is left behind, launderers move quickly to break the cycle, skipping money on blockchains and exchanging tokens so that investigators can lose the thread.

The model has become stronger as the pressure increases. The fallout from this trend is heavily reliant on stablecoins, low-cost blockchains and fast exchanges for “small shares and buying time,” Ari Redbord, a former US Treasury director now at blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, said. he said Decrypt Last year, Interpol classified the criminal network as a global threat involving victims in more than 60 countries.

The costs involved are huge. UN researchers estimate that pig slaughter operations generated billions of dollars between 2020 and 2024, much of it leaving Southeast Asia, which relies on captive and forced labor. Cambodia since then advance the law threaten corrupt bosses with life in prison, and US courts have handed down long sentences, including 20 years for one fugitive It is in line with the plan to spend $73 million.

Thailand is a crypto crime

Thailand is on the front line, bordering the Myanmar and Cambodian areas where most of the drugs work. The Cyber ​​​​Crime Investigation Bureau receives about 800 complaints a day, most of which are related to fraud or crypto-jacking, according to the Model 2025 and TRM Labs. Bangkok has become a frequent detention center for fugitive suspects, including a Portuguese man is being sued for $580 million in crypto fraud and cards taken there in 2025.

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis comparison The volume of crypto fraud increased in 2025, with fraud payouts more than tripling to $2,764 as fraudsters folded AI, fraud tools and network encryption into their operations.

First Light, funded by China’s Ministry of Public Security and supported by local law enforcement agencies, is just one campaign that is growing, with Interpol counting more than 142,000 people in one four-month window showing the scale of the problem police face.