The New York division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an emergency alert to crypto users after a scam campaign on the Tron blockchain circulated fraudulent “FBI tokens” claiming to be from the federal agency.
On March 19, FBI Newyork shared this warning on X that recipients should not provide any personal information on websites linked to these tokens and advised anyone who has already done so to file a report immediately.
Further, using the TRC-20 token standard, an FBI screenshot seems to depict a phishing scam in which purported “FBI tokens” appear in a user’s wallet and demand personal information under the threat of freezing of assets for alleged AML violations. So far, how many users were impacted is unknown.
Crypto Impersonation Scams Surge
The current FBI incident fits into a wider trend of impersonation-driven fraud that has accelerated sharply. According to a Chainalysis report, “we estimate $17 billion was stolen in crypto scams and fraud in 2025, as impersonation scams show massive 1400% year-over-year growth.”
Meanwhile, the report said that huge fraud operations have become more industrialized and are equipped with advanced infrastructure, such as professional money laundering networks, AI-generated deepfakes, and phishing-as-a-service tools.
Also, according to the FBI 2024 report, crypto theft losses saw a 45% rise over 2022. It also brought attention to the increasing number of pig butchering schemes, which are long-running frauds that combine investment fraud with romanticism. Even other regulators have also shown concern about such schemes. While the Federal Trade Commission has previously documented losses of over $1 billion from scams in a year. With that, the FBI has listed crypto-based investment fraud and scams as its highest category of financial losses.
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