In fact, the U.S. government has recently sanctioned FUNNULL, one of these tech companies, for allegedly supplying key infrastructure that allows cybercriminals to thrive. FUNNULL has been associated with over half of all virtual currency investment scams reported to the FBI. This action is the direct result of the company’s deceptive misconduct. Those actions have saved American victims nearly $200 million. The sanctions were directed by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
FUNNULL has become infamous as a tool used in the “pig butchering” crypto scams. This tactic often leads to catastrophic monetary harm for innocent investors. Victims experience, on average, losses of about $150,000. Experts say these statistics are likely an undercount of the actual impact since many victims do not report the details of their experience.
The company staged a Polyfill supply chain attack. This highly disruptive attack served malware to any user who visited a site that was executing Polyfill’s code. This consolidated effort serves as a clear example of how sophisticated cyber threats originating from FUNNULL and its associates can be.
Zach Edwards, a researcher with Silent Push, was instrumental in uncovering FUNNULL. He said he was relieved that the facts correlated with what he had suspected all along about the company’s conspiracy. He continued, “I’m very happy to see the evidence corroborate our assumptions.”
Edwards emphasized the important work government must do in order to take these networks down. He emphasized that though it’s great that the Treasury has taken this action against the largest pig butchering and money laundering operations that target people in the U.S., there is still much more to do. He warned that FUNNULL’s actions are merely “the tip of the iceberg” regarding ongoing financial schemes originating from China that target Americans.
The imposition of sanctions on FUNNULL is an encouraging sign of a new willingness to hold global threat actors accountable for their malign, criminal conduct. Edwards highlighted the need to hold all of these global threat actors accountable for turning Americans into their prey for these financial scams. He argued that exposing the companies they work with and the people who run those companies is an important first step.