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The US and UK have signed a first-of-its-kind agreement to jointly investigate and prosecute crypto scam networks, as fraud losses reported to the FBI nearly doubled to $8.65 billion in 2025.
The agreement was announced Thursday by the US Department of Justice after the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales and the UK National Crime Agency signed a memorandum of understanding. The DOJ described the pact as the “first-of-its-kind” international cooperation agreement designed to disable scam centers.
The partnership comes as losses linked to crypto scams and investment fraud continue to rise sharply in the United States. According to the DOJ, losses reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center increased 89%, from $4.57 billion in 2023 to $8.65 billion in 2025.
Under the new agreement, the US and UK agencies will conduct parallel investigations involving common targets, exchange information on organized crime groups and determine which jurisdiction is best positioned to prosecute individual cases.
The authorities have already identified overlapping investigations, according to the DOJ. They are also preparing an in-person disruption operation with private-sector partners in London scheduled for early October.
The arrangement represents a broader international response to crypto scams, which frequently cross national boundaries and rely on networks that can operate across several jurisdictions simultaneously.
By coordinating investigations and intelligence, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies aim to make it more difficult for criminal groups to exploit differences between national legal systems.
The agreement also expands the work of the US Scam Center Strike Force, launched in November 2025 by US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. The initiative focuses primarily on Chinese organized crime networks operating scam centers in Southeast Asia.
According to the DOJ, these networks have been associated with cryptocurrency investment fraud as well as human trafficking and money laundering.
The Strike Force brings together the FBI, US Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and Justice Department offices. It also cooperates with the US Treasury and State departments, alongside private-sector companies working to disrupt criminal operations and recover money lost by victims.
The latest US-UK partnership follows other international efforts to dismantle operations associated with crypto scams.
On April 29, the DOJ reported a Dubai police-led operation involving the FBI and China’s Ministry of Public Security. The operation resulted in 276 arrests and the closure of at least nine alleged crypto scam centers.
Six people were charged in connection with schemes that allegedly used fake cryptocurrency investment platforms to persuade victims to deposit funds.
The Dubai operation demonstrates the increasingly international nature of crypto scams, with criminal organizations, victims, financial transfers and infrastructure often spread across multiple countries.
The US and UK agreement is intended to strengthen that international response by allowing agencies to coordinate investigations rather than pursuing connected cases independently.
The DOJ’s description of the pact as the “first-of-its-kind” underscores the significance officials place on formal cross-border cooperation against scam-center networks.
Governments in Southeast Asia have also moved to strengthen their domestic response to crypto scams and other forms of digital fraud.
In Myanmar, the country’s military government released draft legislation on May 15 proposing prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life for digital currency fraud. The proposed measures included the possibility of a death sentence in cases where people forced to work at scam centers were killed.
Parliament approved the bill on July 28, although presidential assent had not been confirmed in the information provided.
The proposed legislation reflects the growing pressure on governments to address criminal operations that combine financial fraud with other serious offenses. Scam centers have increasingly drawn scrutiny not only because of financial losses but also because of allegations that workers are trafficked or coerced into participating in fraudulent schemes.
For authorities pursuing crypto scams, disrupting the financial side of these networks is therefore only one part of the challenge. Investigators must also trace organized crime groups, identify victims, establish where offenses occurred and determine which jurisdictions have the authority to prosecute.
The US-UK agreement comes against a backdrop of rapidly increasing reported losses from investment fraud. The $8.65 billion in losses recorded in 2025, as cited by the DOJ, highlights the scale of the problem facing investigators and financial authorities.
The partnership is designed to address crypto scams through a combination of coordinated investigations, intelligence sharing and joint disruption efforts. The planned London operation in October will also involve private-sector partners, extending the response beyond government agencies.
For victims, the growing international cooperation could improve the ability of authorities to trace funds and identify the networks responsible. For criminal organizations, however, closer coordination between agencies could reduce the opportunities created by operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The development signals a broader shift in how authorities approach crypto scams: rather than treating individual fraudulent investment schemes as isolated cases, law enforcement agencies are increasingly examining the organized networks, financial infrastructure and international connections behind them.
As the US and UK prepare for their planned disruption operation, the effectiveness of the new alliance will depend on how successfully agencies translate information sharing into prosecutions, asset recovery and the dismantling of the networks responsible for large-scale investment fraud.
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