$200M Lost to Scams: U.S. Treasury Sanctions Filipino Company Funnull for Providing Technology to Scam Websites

The Department of the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced sanctions against Filipino computer technology company Funnull Technology Inc.

Funnull, along with its administer Liu Lizhi, is known to have provided computer technology for hundreds of thousands of fraudulent investment websites and pig-butchering scams, causing at least $200 million in losses to scam victims in the United States.

According to the Department, Funnull purchased IP addresses in bulk from major cloud service companies around the world and sold them to cybercriminals who created fraudulent platforms and other malicious websites.

Funnull utilized domain generation algorithms (DGAs) to generate a large number of similar websites with distinct names on the same IP addresses, providing criminals with templates to create fraudulent websites. This service makes it easier for fraudsters to masquerade as trusted brands and to quickly change domain names and IP addresses when legitimate businesses try to take down the malicious sites.

Besides, Funnull purchased a repository of code used by web developers in 2024 and maliciously replaced the code to redirect visitors from legitimate websites to fraudulent sites.

Most of the virtual currency investment scam sites reported to the FBI were known to be linked to Funnull.

According to the FBI, these sites have caused at least $200 million in losses to victims, with losses of more than $150,000 per capita. Since many victims do not report scams, the actual losses may be much greater than this amount.

OFAC blocked all U.S.-based assets and proceeds of the designated or blocked persons of Funnull, as well as entities that were 50 per cent or more owned by them.

BrokersView reminds you

Americans lose billions of dollars to online scams annually, with losses in 2024 surpassing previous records. However, online scams are not just a problem in the US; they also affect people worldwide, resulting in significant financial losses.

If you encounter a suspicious trading platform, we encourage you to submit a complaint through BrokersView. Your report can help prevent others from falling victim to scam.