The US government has imposed sanctions on Funnull. Funnull is a company accused of providing infrastructure to cybercriminals carrying out the so-called “pig slaughter” crypto fraud that caused $200 million in American casualties.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Finance's Foreign Assets Control Bureau announced sanctions, saying Funnull “links to most of the cryptocurrency investment scam websites reported to the FBI.” The press release said that while a $200 million loss would result in an average loss of $150,000 per victim, it is “highly likely to underestimate the total loss” as many victims of fraud do not report crimes.
Pig slaughter fraud aims to allow victims to approach victims online, pretend they are interested in romantic relationships, and trampling them down to send money to invest in crypto projects that are not present in the victims.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Funnull is based in the Philippines and is run by Chinese state Li Liu Lizhi, which was approved on Thursday.
According to the Ministry of Finance, Funnull generated the domain name for the website for the IP address it owns and provided “web design templates for Cybercriminal.”
“These services not only make it easier for cybercriminals to impersonate trustworthy brands when creating scam websites, but also allow lawful providers to quickly change to different domain names and IP addresses when they try to delete a website,” the Treasury Department said.
The FBI has released an alert with more information about these activities.
The Treasury has mentioned a polyfill supply chain attack in a press release, and Funnull has said, “I bought a repository of code used by web developers, changed the code to malicious, redirecting legitimate website visitors to websites and online gambling sites.
These activities are exactly what researchers at cybersecurity firm Silent Push accused of carrying out last year. Researchers found that Funnull was responsible for a polyfill supply chain attack. This was started to push malware to anyone who visited a website using PolyFill code. The goal was to redirect users to malicious networks of casinos and online gambling sites, researchers found.
Please contact us for more information that Funnull or other companies will promote fraud. From unprocessed devices and networks, you can safely contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai with a signal of +1 917 257 1382, via Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or by email.
Zach Edwards, a researcher at Silent Push who worked on the Funnull Report last year, told TechCrunch that he was “really happy to see the facts match our doubts.”
“It is encouraging that the Treasury has taken action against the largest pig slaughter and money laundering network targeting the people of the United States, but we know there is more to be done,” Edwards said. “This effort from Funnull is the tip of the iceberg for what's actually happening from China, with a financial scheme aimed at Americans.”
“Global threat actors targeting Americans in financial fraud need to be held accountable and dox the companies they work for and the individuals who run those companies.