The Sa Sister team has noticed that due to the increasing frequency of international conflicts, some major powers that hold the discourse power in the international economy frequently intervene in international trade through tariffs and sanctions. This has led to a surge in demand for crypto assets (especially highly liquid stablecoins like USDT and USDC), forcing many practitioners engaged in international trade to start using/accepting stablecoins for payment settlements.
This situation is profoundly changing the ecological environment of crypto assets: on one hand, the overall market for stablecoins is expanding rapidly; on the other hand, many traditional international trade practitioners are transforming into traders and holders of stablecoins, yet they have only a limited understanding of the dangers in the "dark jungle" of crypto assets.
As a result, there has been a recent surge in cases of crypto assets being stolen, scammed, or mysteriously lost; the methods of crime are evolving, and the difficulty of rights protection and recovery is increasing. Today, the Sa Sister team will discuss how to handle the current situation of USDT theft and rights protection recovery based on some real cases we have recently dealt with.
Several recent cases handled by the Sa Sister team involving asset recovery have been carried out by professional criminal gangs, which generally exhibit the following characteristics:
- Primarily Internet Telecom Fraud
Currently, common crypto-related crimes perpetrated by criminal teams mainly involve victims falling prey to internet telecom fraud. Many victims, having believed the lies fabricated by the criminals, transfer their held USDT to addresses controlled by the criminals, resulting in financial losses.
Moreover, some telecom fraud gangs even arrange "offline USDT exchange" personnel to provide "door-to-door services," luring victims to exchange fiat currency for USDT, which is then transferred to addresses they control.
- Technical Support from Professional Money Laundering Teams
Professional money laundering teams generally have a vast reserve of usable addresses, each typically having only a few days of active usage. A large number of addresses specifically used to receive victims' funds form several financial chains, causing the victims' funds to become mixed during the transfer process. This makes it difficult for victims (and even some judicial authorities) to track and determine the flow of funds without professional technical support.
Additionally, the Sa Sister team has noticed that these addresses specifically used for money laundering are often emptied and abandoned by the laundering teams after a few days of "life," rendering the delayed freezing actions of judicial authorities practically meaningless.
- Funds Generally Flow into HuionePay-Related Addresses
Those who have recently been following crypto assets should be aware of the recently implemented multi-billion dollar crypto asset enforcement action in the United States, which is closely related to Huione. In simple terms, Huione Group is a well-known international money laundering organization, reportedly based in Cambodia, with operations worldwide.
According to statistics from the Slow Mist AML team, since June 2024, the number of active deposit addresses on the TRON chain for HuionePay, a money laundering platform under the Huione Group, has increased from less than 30,000 to over 80,000. The total amount deposited and withdrawn exceeds 50 billion USDT.
Notably, the withdrawal amount from HuionePay exceeds the deposit amount, with a difference of as much as 2.771 billion USDT. Smart partners may have already guessed the possible reasons behind this phenomenon. The Sa Sister team warns that currently, if stolen/scammed funds flow into Huione-related addresses, recovery is nearly impossible, and the rights of victims are difficult to protect.
Such crimes are actually quite frequent. The Sa Sister team has handled cases including, but not limited to: relatives envious of the victim's wealth committing theft, friends stealing mnemonic phrases while the victim's phone is charging nearby, and business partners secretly photographing mnemonic phrases…
These cases differ from those involving professional teams, as the transfer routes of stolen funds are generally clearer and are likely to settle long-term at a specific address after a limited number of hops, making them easier for judicial authorities to freeze. This is mainly because relatives and friends are often limited by their own technical means and psychological weaknesses, making it difficult to quickly cash out or hide the stolen funds, thus making them easier to track.
However, such crimes also have some practical handling difficulties. First, when victims report to the police, they often face the awkward dilemma of "proving that the stolen USDT is mine" and "proving that the wallet address is mine." If they cannot prove they are the victims, the police may not file a case. Secondly, even if it can be proven that a crime has occurred, due to the anonymity of blockchain technology, in most cases, the parties involved and the grassroots police officers are almost unable to accurately identify the real identity information of the suspects, and some police authorities may use this as an excuse not to file a case.
Such crimes often occur among individuals engaged in traditional international trade. Due to the complexity of international trade itself and the particularities of regulatory laws, taxes, and sanctions in various countries, international trade settlement is a very complex issue, giving rise to specialized personnel or institutions such as customs agents, international trade intermediaries, and settlement intermediaries. As the stablecoin market gradually expands, many international trade intermediaries have begun using USDT to provide convenient settlement services for trading parties.
Recently, the Sa Sister team encountered a particularly unusual case of USDT loss. The victim is an entity engaged in international trade and has a long-term cooperative relationship with a settlement intermediary. The victim recently had a routine trade with a sanctioned party, which created a need for fund settlement. After contacting the settlement intermediary, the victim explicitly requested to settle in US dollars and asked the intermediary to pay the dollars to a specific entity, with both parties using a certain overseas instant messaging app for communication.
As a result, during the actual settlement process, the intermediary inexplicably converted the payable amount to USDT and paid it to a TRON chain address that the victim was completely unfamiliar with. After verification, both parties discovered that the criminal had used two accounts to communicate with both the victim and the settlement intermediary regarding the payment, and neither the victim nor the payment intermediary noticed any anomalies. This ultimately led to the payment intermediary making an erroneous payment to an address controlled by the criminal.
After the Sa Sister team intervened and contacted a third-party professional security agency for a fund flow investigation, it was found that the scammed funds had entered a Huione-related address and had been transferred out, making the possibility of recovery objectively very low.
This case indeed has many doubts.
First, how did the criminal know that a transaction was about to occur between the victim and the settlement intermediary, and how could they respond fluently to the details of the transaction with both parties without any flaws? If there was no insider's help, is it technically possible to carry out such a fraudulent crime?
Secondly, from the flow of the stolen funds, the criminal had a clear premeditated plan. Once the funds entered their controlled address, they were immediately transferred into the Huione fund pool, and before the victim could react, they directly unilaterally deleted the chat records (in a certain overseas instant messaging tool, one party can delete both parties' chat records, making it difficult to recover).
In summary, the Sa Sister team believes that such special crimes may involve "insiders" participating in the crime, or there may be issues with the trading parties. Therefore, partners engaged in international trade must be vigilant about this and should verify the identity of trading parties through various means before transactions, including but not limited to using multiple platform chat tools for video verification, IP verification, and verification of specialized trading terminology.
As mentioned earlier, the reasons for losing USDT today are varied, and the criminals' techniques are constantly evolving. Even professional legal teams and blockchain security teams can only assist partners in recovering assets within their capabilities.
To increase the chances of successful asset recovery and provide possibilities for lawyers and security companies to intervene in handling cases, the Sa Sister team recommends that partners do the following after losing USDT:
Use free on-chain security tools to determine the approximate direction and flow of funds. Some partners may not know that there are actually many free security tools available online (the Sa Sister team often uses Misttrack for simple fund analysis and evidence collection in initial investigations) that can assist victims in conducting preliminary checks on their and the criminals' addresses. If lucky (for example, if the perpetrator is an acquaintance), they may even be able to locate the flow of stolen funds and find criminal clues.
Provide a professional and concise victim statement. The victim statement should at least contain the following key information:
(1) The type of funds lost and the wallet address;
(2) The transaction hash of the stolen/scammed funds;
(3) Possible reasons for the loss of funds;
(4) The amount of lost funds and the specific time;
(5) The location of the victim at the time of the loss (specific to a province, city, and district).
Consult professionals. It is recommended to at least consult professional lawyers and security companies: security companies can assess the feasibility of fund recovery after preliminary checks and issue simple review reports. If they can verify the fund flow and locate its direction, there may be a chance of recovery; lawyers can assist in drafting reporting materials if it is confirmed that there is a possibility of criminal case filing after analyzing all materials.
The Sa Sister team additionally reminds that the above tasks should be completed on the day of the incident and a criminal complaint should be filed as soon as possible. This is mainly because, on one hand, Tether only accepts asset freezing orders from judicial authorities. To achieve judicial freezing, our police need to file a case according to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, which often takes several days. On the other hand, the series of addresses used by professional money laundering groups often have a short "life span." If the active period of these addresses is missed, it will render judicial freezing practically meaningless.
As the scale of stablecoin usage continues to expand, the ecology of crypto assets is becoming increasingly intertwined with traditional finance, trade, and other fields. Partners must be cautious when using cryptocurrencies for transactions. The Sa Sister team does not recommend that individuals who have never been exposed to related knowledge recklessly accept stablecoin transactions, to avoid situations such as asset loss and asset freezing.
Related Reading: Crypto Traders Prepare for Delayed U.S. Inflation Report Released on Friday
Original Article: “USDT Scams Are Getting Sophisticated: How Can Victims Recover Their Losses? Discussing Recent Real Cases…”
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