Our monthly round up of news items which help businesses understand the risks around AML and more
Criminals lose, compliance wins, the smarter way to safeguard your business.
Cyber Security
FBI warns Crypto scammers are sending couriers to victims’ doorstep for cash pickups
According to a fresh alert from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), cryptocurrency investment scammers are adding a physical layer to what were previously purely online frauds.
After luring victims, often seniors, through romance “baiting” or business opportunities and pushing them into fake crypto platforms, fraudsters pivot when banks flag or block transfers. They now arrange for couriers to visit victims’ homes or meet them in public to collect envelopes of cash or even gold, authenticating the pickup with agreed passwords or specific dollar bill serial numbers.
Once the courier disappears, so does the money, while the victim’s online wallet shows fabricated gains to keep the scam going.
For AML, fraud‑risk and compliance teams, this hybrid tactic matters because it deliberately routes around the very controls that have improved over the last few years: payment screening, transaction monitoring, and scam‑intervention processes at banks. The value still originates in the regulated sector, but the final leg of the journey is now literal “cash‑in‑hand,” making it harder to connect victim flows, mule operations, and downstream laundering in crypto or cash‑intensive businesses. The FBI’s data show cyber‑enabled crime losses in the U.S. reaching nearly 21 billion in 2025, with 8.6 billion tied to investment scams alone—numbers that underscore the scale of the threat.
Comment – Whilst a US story, criminals copycat tactics, particularly those that circumvent preventative procedures. One to watch!
Organised Crime
HMRC targets “Hidden in Plain Sight” tax fraud on the High Street
HMRC has announced a major push against what it calls “dodgy high street traders,” focusing on businesses that use everyday retail fronts to conceal tax evasion, duty fraud and wider criminality. The plan includes a new 350‑person unit dedicated to small‑business tax crime, more than 30,000 high‑street interventions in 2026‑27, and UK‑wide investigations into those orchestrating these schemes behind the scenes.
From convenience stores to nail bars and takeaways, the message from HMRC is blunt: the days of criminals hiding behind a shopfront and assuming low‑level scrutiny are coming to an end.
For banks, payment providers and other regulated firms, this creates both risk and opportunity. On one side, there is greater regulatory expectation that firms should be able to distinguish between a genuine corner shop and one that is systematically under‑declaring takings, running cash‑only sideline businesses, or acting as a hub for money laundering and excise fraud.
On the other, more visible HMRC activity (interventions, prosecutions, naming of offenders) can provide valuable intelligence that can be built into onboarding, transaction monitoring and periodic reviews, if you have the right tools to surface and connect it.
Comment – This is exactly where EDD‑Pro comes into its own. By drawing on wide, structured datasets and investigative workflows, EDD‑Pro helps compliance teams go beyond basic “MCC‑plus‑turnover” assessments and instead ask smarter questions: has this high‑street entity already attracted HMRC interest or sanctions, does its ownership connect to known excise or VAT fraud networks, and do its trading patterns match the footprint of a legitimate SME or something more opaque.
Linking HMRC’s intensified focus on high‑street crime to richer enhanced due diligence allows firms to identify problem accounts earlier, direct investigations where they matter most, and demonstrate to supervisors that they are not blind to organised crime hidden in plain sight.
Regulatory
US Sanctions Cambodia linked scam network over global crypto fraud
The US Treasury, backed by the State Department, has launched a sweeping crackdown on online scam centers in Southeast Asia, with Cambodia firmly in the spotlight.
Central to the latest action is Cambodian senator and businessman Kok An, designated alongside 28 individuals and entities alleged to operate fraud compounds where trafficked workers are forced to run crypto‑linked romance and investment scams targeting victims in the US, Europe, China and beyond. These centers are part of a broader “pig‑butchering” ecosystem that U.S. officials estimate stole at least 10 billion dollars from Americans in 2024 alone.
The sanctions freeze any US‑linked assets belonging to Kok An and his network, and prohibit US persons and institutions from doing business with the designated entities. They build on earlier measures against scam compounds and laundering hubs such as the Prince Group and Huione‑linked payment platforms, which processed tens of billions of dollars in illicit virtual currency flows and invested profits into prime real estate in London and other financial centres.
The picture that emerges is one of transnational organised crime where political protection, forced labour, cyber‑enabled fraud and large‑scale money laundering converge.
Comment – For firms struggling to map exposure to Southeast Asia’s scam‑center economy and fast‑moving sanctions lists, Intelect’s EDD‑Pro platform offers a structured way to trace counterparties, property holdings and crypto‑linked flows connected to designated Cambodian and regional networks.
