U.S. sanctions Funnull Technology for aiding $200M crypto scam targeting americans
Funnull helped run massive crypto ‘Pig Butchering’ fraud
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippine-based company accused of providing infrastructure for hundreds of thousands of websites involved in virtual currency investment fraud, commonly known as “pig butchering.”
According to OFAC’s statement, revenue from such scams reached record highs in 2024. Funnull directly supported multiple schemes, with U.S. victims reporting losses exceeding $200 million, averaging more than $150,000 per person.
Funnull, led by its Chinese administrator Liu Lizhi, buys IP addresses in bulk from major global cloud providers and resells them to cybercriminals for hosting fraudulent platforms and malicious web content.
The FBI reports that Funnull is linked to the majority of crypto investment scam websites targeting U.S. citizens.
Cybercrime keeps evolving
Funnull uses domain generation algorithms (DGAs) to create vast numbers of similar yet unique domain names tied to its purchased IPs. It also provides web design templates to criminals, helping them impersonate trusted brands and quickly rotate domains and IPs when law enforcement tries to take sites down.
In 2024, Funnull reportedly acquired a developer code repository and maliciously altered its code to redirect visitors from legitimate websites to phishing and gambling sites—some tied to Chinese money-laundering operations.
As we wrote, ASIC targets crypto scams, closes 95 companies
