US Treasury demands improved cyber scam reporting as losses hit $13 billion

The US Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued a new alert urging financial institutions to improve the quality of their suspicious activity reporting regarding overseas scam centers. Since September 2023, FinCEN has linked approximately $12.7 billion in losses to digital asset investment scams. To combat this, the agency has introduced a new keyword, "FIN-2026-SCAMCENTERS," and is requesting that banks and crypto exchanges include more granular data, such as wallet addresses, social media handles, and chat logs, in their filings. Officials noted that current reporting is often fragmented, making it difficult to trace the lifecycle of complex fraud schemes that span multiple institutions. While FinCEN's Rapid Response Program has recovered over $1 billion for victims since 2015, the agency emphasizes that better data sharing is essential to address the growing scale of industrial-level fraud targeting Americans.