Uncle Sam tells overseas cybercrooks their visas are canceled

Summary

Security Uncle Sam tells overseas cybercrooks their visas are canceled Policy targets online scammers, sextortionists, and potentially their immediate families Marco Rubio says the US will deny visas to foreign nationals involved in cybercrime and may extend the restrictions to their immediate families.The US secretary of state announced the restrictions on Thursday, citing a rise in overseas investment scams "often orchestrated by Chinese transnational criminal organizations."Rubio said that in 2024, scammers defrauded US citizens of more than $10 billion, and additionally preyed on children through sextortion schemes that can "devastate families and futures." "The Trump Administration is deploying every tool at our disposal – sanctions, prosecutions, asset seizures, extradition requests, and international law enforcement cooperation – to dismantle criminal scam networks and impose costs on those who enable them," he said. "By restricting visa issuance to those who are responsible for or complicit in these criminal enterprises, we are sending a clear message: The United States will go after those who prey on our citizens." Chinese gangs, Southeast Asian compounds Rubio singled out Chinese transnational criminal organizations, but that does not mean the scams are necessarily being run from China.The FBI's most recent annual report [PDF] says cryptocurrency investment scams are largely perpetrated by organized criminal enterprises based in Southeast Asia, often using people trafficked to scam compounds. The same report says US investigators are pursuing Chinese organized crime affiliates operating in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma.Financially motivated sextortion has a somewhat different geographic footprint. According to FBI guidance, perpetrators are usually based in West Africa, including Nigeria and Ivory Coast, or Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines.The FBI's evidence shows how such networks can operate across borders, running scam centers in one countr...