The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged seven entities for orchestrating a $14 million "relationship confidence" fraud that weaponized WhatsApp and deepfake technology against retail investors. The scheme, which ran from January 2024 through January 2025, relied on fictitious trading platforms Morocoin Tech Corp., Berge Blockchain Technology, and Cirkor Inc. to siphon funds under the guise of exclusive institutional access.
The ‘Professor’ Playbook
Unlike blunt-force hacks, this operation employed a slow-burn "pig butchering" strategy. According to the SEC’s complaint, the fraudsters used social media ads to funnel victims into exclusive WhatsApp investment clubs managed by AI Wealth Inc., Lane Wealth Inc., and others.
Inside these groups, personas identified as "professors" and "assistants", using names like "Richard Dill" and "Daisy Akemi", distributed purported AI-generated trading signals. To manufacture authority, the group operators circulated deepfake videos of prominent financial professionals endorsing the strategies.
Phantom Tokens and Fake Yield
Victims were directed to fund accounts on Morocoin, Berge, and Cirkor, which falsely claimed to hold government licenses. The platforms displayed fictitious profits and solicited investments in non-existent "Security Token Offerings" (STOs) for fake companies, including:
- SatCommTech (SCT)
- HumanBlock (HMB)
- NeuralNet
No actual trading occurred. When investors attempted to realize their gains, the platforms executed a secondary "advance fee" scam, demanding non-existent taxes or withdrawal fees before cutting off communication.
"Our complaint alleges a multi-step fraud that attracted victims with ads on social media… then convinced victims to put their money into fake crypto asset trading platforms where it was misappropriated," stated Laura D’Allaird, Chief of the SEC’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit.
Institutional Context
The charges underscore the SEC’s increasing focus on "confidence fraud" vectors that bypass on-chain security measures entirely. While DeFi protocols harden their code against exploits, attackers are pivoting to social engineering, leveraging the veneer of institutional legitimacy, "exclusive clubs," "proprietary AI," and "licensed platforms", to target retail capital directly.
The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, civil penalties, and disgorgement of the $14 million, which was traced to a web of overseas crypto wallets and bank accounts.
