By SDCN Staff
San Diego, CA–Federal authorities on Tuesday announced they seized a web domain used to target and defraud Americans through cryptocurrency investment scams.
The action followed an extensive investigation by the FBI’s San Diego Field Office. It was carried out by the Scam Center Strike Force, led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, with support from federal law enforcement and interagency partners.
Joining U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in the announcement of the crypto scam were Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Department of Justice and Special Agent in Charge Mark Dargis of the FBI San Diego Field Office.
The domain had been used by scammers located at the Tai Chang scam compound (aka Casino Kosai) located in the village of Kyaukhat, Burma. The domain seizure comes less than three weeks after the announcement of the launch of the Scam Center Strike Force and the seizure of two additional domains also used by the Tai Chang scam compound for CIF scams.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the domain seizure, Tai Chang is affiliated with the Burmese armed group, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army and Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited (Trans Asia), which were designated by the Department of the Treasury, among others, as specially-designated nationals on November 12 for links to Chinese organized crime and development of scam centers in Southeast Asia.
The seizure of the domain tickmilleas.com is part of the Scam Center Strike Force’s efforts to combat Southeast Asia scam centers at the highest level and stop U.S. infrastructure from being used as instrumentalities of the fraud schemes.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the seizure, the domain was disguised as a legitimate investment platform to trick victims into depositing their funds. Victims who used the domain reported to the FBI that the site showed lucrative returns on what they believed to be their investments and displayed purported deposits made by scammers to the victims’ “accounts” when the scammers walked the victims through supposed trades. Despite the seized domains having been registered in early November 2025, the FBI has already identified multiple victims who used the domain in the last month to send cryptocurrency as part of what they believed were legitimate investments and were scammed out of their money.
The Scam Center Strike Force seeks to collaborate with cooperative private sector companies to thwart CIF scam centers. According to the affidavit filed in support of the seizure, the domain directed users to download mobile applications—linked to the scam–from Google Play and the Apple App Store. The FBI notified Google and Apple of the fraudulent tickmilleas-associated apps, and several of the apps have been removed voluntarily from these stores.
As part of the Scam Center Strike Force’s efforts at public-private partnership, the Strike Force worked with Meta to identify accounts associated with the Tai Chang compound. Meta voluntarily removed approximately 2000 accounts as part of the collaborative effort.
Following the seizure, a splash page will be placed on the tickmilleas.com website that warns victims who have been directed to use the domain that it has now been seized by law enforcement, thereby disrupting the intended CIF scam activity and money laundering tied to the domain.
Additionally, the Scam Center Strike Force has deployed FBI agents to Bangkok, who are working alongside the Royal Thai Police in their War Room Task Force, to investigate and combat scam compounds, including Tai Chang and other compounds in Burma.
Federal authorities say the Scam Center Strike Force is targeting major scam operations in Southeast Asia. According to investigators, Chinese transnational criminal organizations are using cryptocurrency investment fraud schemes and other confidence scams to steal the life savings of Americans. Strike Force teams are focused on identifying and pursuing key leaders, including alleged Chinese organized crime affiliates operating in Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.
These schemes, often referred to by fraudsters as “pig butchering,” are typically run out of compounds in Southeast Asia. Using U.S. social media platforms or text messages sent to U.S. cell phones, scammers contact potential victims, build trust, and encourage them to invest in legitimate cryptocurrency before directing the funds to fraudulent investment websites and applications. Authorities say workers inside the compounds are frequently victims of human trafficking who are held against their will, abused, and guarded by armed groups while carrying out the scams. In some countries where the compounds operate, the illicit revenue is so substantial that it makes up a significant portion of the national economy. Recent reports estimate that the scams defraud Americans of $9 billion to $10 billion annually.
The Scam Center Strike Force is a collaboration of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; the DOJ’s Criminal Division, including the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, Fraud Section, and Money Laundering, Narcotics, and Forfeiture Section; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and the U.S. Secret Service. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island is also collaborating on the initiative.
For the Department of Justice, the Scam Center Strike Force is led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Karen P. Seifert and Kevin Rosenberg, and Associate Counsel Richard Goldberg of the DOJ’s Fraud Section. The seizure was handled by Team Burma, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jolie Zimmerman and CCIPS Trial Attorney Ethan Cantor, along with the FBI’s San Diego Field Office, which has led the investigation into Tai Chang, with substantial assistance from Paralegal Peter Bleicken of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Anyone defrauded out of their money by a cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme is encouraged to submit a complaint to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Victims directed to use tickmilleas.com as part of a scam, reference “tickmilleas.com” in the complaint.
To report about past or ongoing activity regarding the Tai Chang scam compound, contact the FBI at fbisd_fraudresponse@fbi.gov.
