The Biden years left elderly Americans defenseless against predators.
One Trump official is finally taking the gloves off.
And Jeanine Pirro made one announcement that left scammers running scared.
Chinese organized crime has been bleeding America's seniors dry for years with cryptocurrency scams that empty retirement accounts and destroy lives.
The scale of the theft is staggering – and Washington sat on its hands while it happened.
Now someone's finally doing something about it.
Pirro unveils Strike Force targeting Chinese crime networks
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro stood before cameras and declared war on the Chinese crime syndicates that have turned elderly Americans into their personal ATM machines.
She announced the creation of the first-ever Scam Center Strike Force to go after cryptocurrency fraud operations based in Southeast Asia.
"They prey on older Americans because of their loneliness," Pirro said.¹
The numbers tell the ugly story Washington doesn't want you to know about.
These scammers stole more than $9 billion from Americans in 2024 alone.²
But experts estimate that number could be 15 times higher because most victims are too embarrassed to report they got conned.³
That means Chinese organized crime potentially drained $135 billion from American families last year.
Think about that for a second.
These criminals are running what amounts to a military operation against America's grandparents – and until Trump came back to Washington, nobody did a damn thing about it.
How the scam actually works
Here's the playbook these criminals use to destroy American families.
The scammers reach out on social media platforms like it's a wrong number or innocent mistake.
They gain the victim's trust over weeks or months.
Then they move the conversation to encrypted apps where nobody can see what they're doing.
The crime groups shuttle their victims from legitimate cryptocurrency platforms to fraudulent ones that look real but are completely fake.⁴
Elderly Americans think they're protecting their retirement savings.
Instead, they're wiring their life savings straight into the pockets of Chinese gangsters operating out of Southeast Asia.
One retired couple in South Carolina got conned for months.
They lost almost $390,000 visiting multiple Bitcoin ATMs in Georgia and South Carolina.⁵
Another California woman had $720,000 stolen after a scammer built a fake relationship with her on a chat app and convinced her to use a fraudulent crypto trading platform.⁶
She invested her entire life savings over three weeks before the scammer disappeared.
These aren't isolated incidents.
The FBI received nearly 11,000 cryptocurrency ATM scam complaints in 2024 – with total losses around $250 million just from Bitcoin ATMs.⁷
And that's only scratching the surface.
Trump administration comes out swinging
The Strike Force isn't messing around.
Pirro announced they've already seized $400 million in stolen cryptocurrency and filed actions to grab another $80 million that'll be returned to victims.⁸
The Treasury Department simultaneously hit an armed group in Burma called the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army with sanctions for supporting cyber scam centers that target Americans.⁹
Treasury also went after Trans Asia International Holding Group Thailand Company Limited, Troth Star Company Limited, and Thai national Chamu Sawang for working with the scam operations.¹⁰
"Criminal networks operating out of Burma are stealing billions of dollars from hardworking Americans through online scams," said Treasury Under Secretary John K. Hurley.¹¹
But here's what makes this different from the usual Washington talk.
The Strike Force is coordinating across DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, and Treasury to actually dismantle these networks instead of taking occasional swings at individual scammers.
They're going after the leadership of Chinese organized crime syndicates in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma.
And they're seizing American infrastructure – websites, internet service provider accounts, social media – that these criminals use to rob Americans.¹²
Pirro specifically called out big tech companies to step up.
"Working together in public-private partnership, we must secure the U.S. infrastructure, which is being used as an instrument to defraud Americans in these scams," she said.¹³
Meta, Microsoft, and AARP have already reached out to work with the Strike Force.¹⁴
The Biden administration let this happen
For four years, Joe Biden's DOJ sat around with their thumbs up while Chinese crime syndicates perfected the art of stealing from America's elderly.
Under Biden's watch, seniors got hammered.
In 2021, they lost $241,000 to crypto scams.
By 2023, that number exploded to $1.65 billion.¹⁵
People over 60 are three times more likely to get scammed through Bitcoin ATMs than younger Americans.¹⁶
And the Biden administration did basically nothing about it beyond issuing occasional warnings that accomplished zilch.
President Trump understands something Biden never figured out.
You can't make America the global center of cryptocurrency innovation while Chinese gangsters are using crypto to rob grandma.
That's why Trump created the Strike Force within months of taking office.
The mission is crystal clear: identify and charge the leaders running these operations, trace the stolen money and return it to victims, and shut down the American infrastructure making these scams possible.
These scam centers aren't just stealing money.
They're trafficking human beings and using debt bondage, physical violence, and threats of forced prostitution to force workers into running the scams.¹⁷
The scam center operators recruit workers under false pretenses, then trap them in compounds across Southeast Asia where they have no choice but to help rob Americans or face brutal consequences.
This is an organized criminal enterprise on a massive scale – with connections straight back to China.
Pirro is using Trump's no-nonsense approach to law enforcement.
Go after the source, hit them where it hurts, and make sure they can't just set up shop somewhere else.
The Strike Force already has teams investigating the worst scam compounds in Southeast Asia and building cases against the Chinese organized crime figures running the operations.¹⁸
"Scam centers are creating a generational wealth transfer from Main Street America into the pockets of Chinese organized crime," Pirro explained.¹⁹
She's right.
And Trump's administration is finally doing something about it.
¹ "Pirro announces Scam Center Strike Force to target Chinese organized crime," Fox Business, November 12, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ "Seniors in an affluent S.C. community have had it with 'doggone' crypto scammers," NBC News, February 13, 2025.
⁶ "Blog: Seniors Bear Rising Burden of Crypto Scams," Americans for Financial Reform, October 15, 2024.
⁷ "Inside the twisted world of crypto ATM scams," CNN, October 20, 2025.
⁸ "New Scam Center Strike Force Battles Southeast Asian Crypto Investment Fraud Targeting Americans," U.S. Department of Justice, November 12, 2025.
⁹ "Pirro announces Scam Center Strike Force to target Chinese organized crime," Fox Business, November 12, 2025.
¹⁰ Ibid.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² "New Scam Center Strike Force Battles Southeast Asian Crypto Investment Fraud Targeting Americans," U.S. Department of Justice, November 12, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ "Pirro announces Scam Center Strike Force to target Chinese organized crime," Fox Business, November 12, 2025.
¹⁵ "Blog: Seniors Bear Rising Burden of Crypto Scams," Americans for Financial Reform, October 15, 2024.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ "New Scam Center Strike Force and sanctions target Chinese organized crime, crypto scams," The National Desk, November 12, 2025.
¹⁸ "New Scam Center Strike Force Battles Southeast Asian Crypto Investment Fraud Targeting Americans," U.S. Department of Justice, November 12, 2025.
¹⁹ Ibid.
