A 20-Year-Old's Crypto Wallet Moved $123M in Romance-Scam Cash: Interpol Says
DECRYPT ·
Thai police arrested two people over a scheme that laundered romance-scam proceeds through crypto, using cross-chain swaps to hide the trail, Interpol said. One suspect, aged 20, controlled a wallet that processed more than $122.5 million in 10 months. The arrests came out of Operation First Light 2026, a four-month push across 97 countries and territories that led to 5,811 arrests and the interception of $293 million in illicit assets. Interpol said it identified more than 142,000 victims and blocked over 31,000 bank accounts, using its I-GRIP stop-payment tool to check the flows of fiat and virtual assets. A 20-year-old's cryptocurrency wallet moved more than $122.5 million in just 10 months as part of a scheme to launder money stolen from romance-scam victims, Interpol said, in one of the standout cases from a sweeping global anti-fraud operation. Thai police made two arrests in the case, according to Interpol , which said the operators funneled the proceeds into a mix of cryptocurrencies and used cross-chain token swaps, shifting funds between different blockchains, to obscure where the money went. 🚨 5,800+ arrests, USD 293 million intercepted across 97 countries The results of Operation First Light 2026 highlight the global scale of social engineering fraud and associated money laundering. Coordinated by INTERPOL, the operation targeted the criminal networks behind… pic.twitter.com/ArRit7NmMp
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