WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) hosted a FinCEN Exchange focused on combating illicit financial activity associated with transnational scam centers. The event brought together representatives from financial institutions, digital asset industry partners, law enforcement agencies, and other government partners to share information on the financial activities of scam center operations and strengthen public-private collaboration to identify and disrupt the illicit financial networks that support them.

Transnational scam centers pose a significant threat to the U.S. financial system and consumers, facilitating large-scale fraud schemes that target victims in the United States and around the world. Scam center operations may also involve human trafficking, forced labor, and complex money laundering networks designed to conceal and move illicit proceeds. Financial institution should be vigilant to these threats and review FinCEN’s recent Alert and Financial Trend Analysis on overseas scam centers.

This event supports Executive Order 14390, which declared that it is the policy of the United States to protect Americans from, and harden our financial and digital systems against, these threats posed by cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes. FinCEN is committed to fostering information sharing and encourages financial institutions to review alerts, advisories, notices, and financial trend analyses to stay informed about the evolving threat posed by nefarious actors, including transnational criminal organizations, that are perpetrating fraud and cybercrime.

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The FinCEN Exchange program is a statutorily authorized, voluntary public-private partnership that convenes relevant stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. The program aims to protect our national security and our citizens from harm by combatting money laundering and its related crimes, including terrorism, through public-private dialogue that encourages, enables, and acknowledges industry focus on high-value and high-impact activities. The program began in 2017 and was codified as part of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020.

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