US Sanctions Target Philippine Firm Allegedly Backing Crypto Scams

Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippine-based firm, has been sanctionedby the United States Department of the Treasury in what it claims is a move against a “large-scale” global cryptocurrency fraud network that leverages “complicit digital asset firms.” The action follows surveillance of the spread of the so-called “pig butchering” scams that have according to press reports already cost American victims $200 million.

The scams are supported by a Manila-registered company called Funnull Technology, which is said to buy large numbers of IP addresses from large cloud providers and rent them to criminals to conduct phone fraud on a giant scale.

Criminals subsequently exploit the infrastructure to run hundreds of thousands of scam webpages which impersonate genuine investment or banking websites.

Funnull also uses domain generation algorithms (DGAs) to generate thousands of fake website names and offers web design templates to help scammers impersonate well-known businesses and companies, while also being able to swap domains at pace in order to bypass detection, the Treasury Department said.

The US Treasury also blacklisted a Chinese national, Liu Lizhi, who was attributed to being the administrator of Funnull Technology. The Treasury said Liu was responsible for company operations on a daily basis, including allocating domain names for cryptocurrency investment fraud, phishing scams and online gambling websites.

“Today’s action reflects our continued emphasis on disrupting the criminal enterprises, including Funnull, that support relentless cyber rip-offs targeting American individuals and businesses and the U.S. financial system,” said Michael Faulkender, the deputy secretary of the Treasury, in a statement.

These “pig butchering” swindles generally begin with the bad guys setting up what appears to be a legitimate online relationship with victims , usually through social media or dating apps.

After winning their victims’ trust, the scammers trick their victims into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency exchanges, presenting them with fake returns and dividends, and pressuring investors into making fresh investment deposits. The victims eventually find themselves locked out of the platforms, losing their entire investment.

The FBI has also released a cybersecurity advisory on Funnull, which includes technical details of how Funnull operates as well as information about the IP addresses and computer infrastructure it uses.

The FBI pointed out that they had discovered more than 332K unique domains related to the Funnull’s infrastructure between January 2015 and 2025.

The sanctions mean that all property and interests in property of Funnull Technology and Liu Lizhi that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported to Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Americans and entities are also forbidden from carrying out any transactions with the blacklisted people.

This US government move comes as part of an increasing global attempt to shut down the infrastructure supporting massive cryptocurrency-based fraud and safeguard potential victims from such well-organized deceptions.