U.S. Court Seizes $125,000 in Crypto from Nigerian Telegram Scam
A U.S. court has ordered that $125,000 in cryptocurrency be taken from the Binance accounts of three Nigerians. This money was stolen in a 2021 Telegram scam from an American man. The court acted after waiting for months for the Nigerians to come forward, but they never did.
The judgment was given on April 30 by a court in Tennessee. The stolen crypto came from accounts linked to three Nigerians: Martins Eromosele Iyere, Moses Olumide Sokale, and Olawumi Stephen Adewale. They scammed Matthew McNulty, a man from Tennessee, in 2021.
According to court papers and a report from FBI agent Jordan Foreman, McNulty was tricked into entering his login info on a fake website based in Nigeria. The scammers used this info to steal his crypto. The money was then changed into other cryptocurrencies, moved through several wallets, and finally landed in Binance accounts.
The FBI worked hard to track the money using open-source tools. Agent Foreman said the way the money was moved looked like money laundering (hiding the source of stolen money).
The court agreed that the evidence showed a strong link between the stolen crypto and the crime. Even after trying to contact the Nigerians and posting a public notice, no one responded. So, the judge approved the seizure of the funds for the U.S. government.
How the Scam Happened
Court records show that on February 12, 2021, McNulty asked for help on a Telegram group called AnySwap after making a mistake in a crypto trade. A scammer pretending to be a group manager contacted him and offered help.
The scammer sent McNulty to a fake website hosted in Nigeria. When McNulty entered his login info, the site gave him a QR code. The scammer told him to take a screenshot of the code and send it. As soon as McNulty did that, his crypto was stolen. The scammers moved the money through many wallets and ended up depositing it into Binance accounts tied to the three Nigerians.
Crypto Scams Are Growing
As crypto becomes more common, scams are increasing. The FBI’s 2023 report said it received over 69,000 complaints about crypto-related crimes, with losses of over $5.6 billion. That’s 45% more than in 2022.
Another report from Chainalysis said scam-linked wallets received $9.9 billion in 2024 so far, and that number could rise to $12.4 billion. Since 2020, scam activity has grown by about 24% each year.
People are also worried about peer-to-peer crypto trades, like on the Bybit platform, which are hard to regulate. Experts say scams could get worse with AI. Tools like generative AI can create fake websites and content to trick people more easily.
Elad Fouks, a fraud expert, said that stopping crypto scams will take serious work from governments, companies, and tech experts. These efforts need to be united and honest to stop the fast-growing threat.
