2026-04-23T06:00:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻（CBS News）
凯尔·霍尔德的全部毕生积蓄都被精心策划的骗子从她手中偷走，这些骗子利用人工智能对她进行了完美的操纵。她积攒了数十年的30万美元退休储蓄账户，在不到三个月的时间里就消失在了加密货币领域。
据美国联邦调查局（FBI）数据，2025年共有数千名美国人遭遇网络盗窃诈骗，总损失估计达200亿美元，其中超过一半的资金流向了加密货币。霍尔德就是其中之一。
2024年圣诞节前后，霍尔德通过WhatsApp收到了第一条消息——这是她用来与美国、加拿大和以色列的亲友沟通的热门聊天应用。这条消息提供了加密货币市场投资指导。
73岁的霍尔德曾是一名职业治疗师，但因受伤无法继续从事这份工作，因此对居家投资的想法很感兴趣。
“我当时想，或许这可以让我利用闲暇时间，开启新的事业并赚钱，支撑我的晚年生活，”霍尔德在她不得不搬入的辅助生活设施附近的公园长椅上对CBS新闻说道，她的护理费用由医疗补助计划（Medicaid）承担。
霍尔德表示，她回复了这条消息，索要更多信息。一名自称妮娅姆的人做出了回应，并开始询问她的生活情况。
诈骗的运作手法
霍尔德回忆称，她当时觉得自己和妮娅姆已经成了朋友。“她说自己是单亲妈妈，我心想我也是单亲妈妈。她总是关心我的生活，然后会问：‘钱转过来了吗？’”
凯尔·霍尔德与一名自称妮娅姆的骗子交换了消息，最终将全部积蓄都卷入了加密货币诈骗骗局。 凯尔·霍尔德
“亲爱的，你昨晚睡得好吗？”诈骗初期，妮娅姆通过WhatsApp给她发消息问道，“今天有什么安排吗？……对了，亲爱的，你的资金有没有转到花旗银行账户里？”
妮娅姆和另一名自称“客服团队成员”的骗子指导霍尔德如何在网上开设两个加密货币钱包。随后她向骗子绑定的加密账户转入了一小笔钱，很快她的加密钱包里就收到了数千美元。
妮娅姆向霍尔德保证，她所在的团队会为两人共同赚取的资金缴纳税款。霍尔德以为自己找到了合法的投资机会。
接下来妮娅姆开始求助。“我希望你能理解单亲妈妈的困境，因为我借给你的钱包括给我女儿爱丽丝的抚养费，甚至还有一部分贷款资金，”妮娅姆写道。
霍尔德从她的加密钱包中转出了更多资金，最终向与骗子绑定的14个不同钱包转入了近30万美元。
与妮娅姆沟通两个月后，霍尔德没有看到任何资金流回她的加密钱包，开始感到担忧。
“‘请向我保证这不是骗局，’我真的对她这么说了。我越来越担心了，”霍尔德对CBS新闻说道。
妮娅姆告诉她，自己转错了加密钱包地址。
“天哪，亲爱的，你怎么会犯这么低级的错误？这太糟糕了。联系客服咨询一下如何解决这个问题，”妮娅姆给她写道。
就在这时，WhatsApp上的消息开始变得具有威胁性。
“你犯了一个致命错误，”两人沟通两个月后，妮娅姆写道。
霍尔德表示，当她意识到发生了什么——自己毕生的积蓄都付诸东流时，她甚至不想再活下去了。
她连续几周都难以起床。社会服务人员上门检查她的情况，最终警方将她送往当地医院。社工安排医疗补助计划支付她的费用，让她搬到长岛的一家辅助生活设施，如今她和另一名女性共用一个小房间。
“我本来想给孩子们留点东西，但现在什么都没剩下了，”她说。
人工智能工具助力犯罪分子 targeting 受害者
她的案件被移交给美国国税局刑事调查局纽约外勤办公室，特别探员对这起诈骗案进行了梳理。
调查人员发现，网络犯罪分子将霍尔德转入的14个钱包中的加密货币转移到了5个新钱包中，以增加追踪难度。
“从这5个钱包，资金会流向一个加密货币交易所，也就是所谓的‘套现渠道’，”负责外勤工作的特别探员哈里·查维斯说道。
查维斯指出，骗子很可能使用了暗网上随处可得的工具，这些工具能更有效地锁定受害者。
“你可以去这些网站，他们会出售潜在受害者名单，这些人都是之前的受害者。还有其他通过黑客攻击或数据泄露获取并被倒卖的数据。然后他们会利用这些暗网人工智能工具编写脚本，精准地联系特定受害者，”查维斯对CBS新闻说道。
CBS新闻不会透露为骗子提供人工智能工具的暗网网站名称。
霍尔德的资金与其他受害者的资金被合并，最终犯罪分子在未被抓获的情况下通过套现渠道转移了超过500万美元的加密货币。
“虽然她为这起骗局贡献了数十万美元，但他们最终在这个最终钱包里累计了数百万美元，”查维斯说道。
美国国税局刑事 division 近期为类似霍尔德的案件设立了在线举报热线。
“不要感到羞愧。这些骗局非常精密，任何人都可能成为受害者，”查维斯说道。
为避免遭遇此类诈骗，查维斯表示，在这类情况下最重要的是放慢节奏、后退一步。
“很多时候，如果你收到来自某个机构的沟通信息，在点击或被这类信息引诱之前，一定要先与该机构核实他们是否真的在与你联系，”查维斯补充道，“很多时候，那种急于点击的紧迫感会让你来不及再三确认，等到反应过来时已经太晚了，一切都已经发生了。”
调查人员表示，受害者报案越早，警方锁定作案者的机会就越大。
查维斯的特别探员团队一直在试图找出诱骗霍尔德的这起诈骗案的其他受害者。但他们至今未能锁定作案者。
“他们可能身在世界任何地方，”查维斯说道。
劳拉·盖勒为本报道撰稿。
AI is fueling a massive surge in crypto fraud schemes, IRS investigators say
2026-04-23T06:00:00-0400 / CBS News
Kyle Holder’s entire life savings were stolen from her by sophisticated scammers who used artificial intelligence to perfectly manipulate her. Her $300,000 in retirement and savings accounts, saved over decades, disappeared into the cryptocurrency universe in under three months.
Holder was one of thousands of Americans swindled out of a total estimated at $20 billion by way of cyber theft in 2025, according to the FBI. More than half of those funds were in cryptocurrency.
The first message came in around Christmas 2024 via WhatsApp, a popular messaging app that Holder used to communicate with family and friends in the United States, Canada and Israel. The message offered coaching on how to invest in the crypto market.
Holder, 73, had been an occupational therapist, but an injury made that untenable, so she was intrigued by the idea of investing from home.
“I just thought maybe this was a way that I could use my time, start something new and make money, to carry me into my older years,” she told CBS News on a park bench near the assisted living facility she’s had to move into, paid for by Medicaid.
Holder says she replied to the message asking for more information. Someone who called herself Niamh responded, and started asking about her life.
The anatomy of the scam
Holder recalled thinking she and Niamh had become friends. “She said she’s a single parent and I thought I’m a single parent. She was always asking about me. And then she would say, ‘Is the money being transferred?’”
Kyle Holder exchanged messages with a scammer who went by the name Niamh, and eventually lost all her savings to a crypto fraud scheme. Kyle Holder
“Honey, how did you sleep last night?” Niamh sent her via WhatsApp early on in the scam. “Any plans for the day?… By the way, honey, have your funds arrived in your Citibank account?”
Niamh and another scammer, who was called a member of the “customer service team,” coached Holder how to open two crypto wallets online. She then transferred a small sum to a crypto account tied to the scammer and thousands of dollars showed up in her crypto wallet.
Niamh assured Holder that the team she worked with would pay taxes on the funds they earned together. Holder thought she’d found a legitimate investment opportunity.
Next Niamh asked for help. “I hope you can understand the plight of being a single mom because the money I lent you includes child support for my daughter Alice and even some of the funds obtained through loans,” Niamh wrote.
Holder transferred more from her crypto wallets, eventually sending almost $300,000 to 14 different wallets tied to the scammers.
Two months into communicating with Niamh, not seeing any money flowing back into her crypto wallets, Holder became worried.
“‘Please assure me this is not a scam,’ I actually said that to her. I’m getting worried,” Holder told CBS News.
Niamh told her she’d sent money to the wrong crypto wallet.
“Oh my goodness, honey, how could you make such a little mistake? This is very bad. Contact customer service to consult on how to solve this problem,” Niamh wrote to her.
That’s when the WhatsApp messages became intimidating.
“You have made a fatal mistake,” Niamh wrote in a message two months into their communication.
Holder said she no longer wanted to live when she realized what had happened — that all of her hard-earned savings were gone.
She had trouble getting out of bed for weeks. Social services were called in to check on her and eventually police took her to a local hospital. Social workers arranged for Medicaid to pay for her to move to an assisted living facility on Long Island, where she now shares a small room with another woman.
“I wanted to have something to leave to my children but there’s nothing left,” she said.
AI tools help criminals target victims
Her case was referred to the IRS Criminal Investigation New York Field Office, where special agents mapped out the scam.
Investigators found cyber criminals had transferred cryptocurrency from the 14 wallets to which Holder sent money into five new wallets to make it harder for anyone to trace.
“From these five wallets it makes its way to an exchange, which is the off-ramp,” said Harry Chavis, the special agent in charge.
This diagram from IRS Criminal Investigation’s New York Field Office shows how a victim’s funds from two crypto wallets are moved and mixed with funds from other victims, then funneled through a crypto exchange to the scammer, making the money incredibly difficult to trace. IRS Criminal Investigation’s New York Field Office
Chavis noted that the scammers likely used tools readily available on the dark web that enable targeting victims even more effectively.
“You could go here and they would sell potential lists of people who were prior victims.There’s other data that has been scraped or pulled through hacks or leaks that can be sold for criminals to obtain. And then they’re using these dark AI tools to write scripts to literally go specifically to the victim,” Chavis told CBS News.
CBS News is not naming the dark web sites that provide AI tools for scammers.
Holder’s money was consolidated with other victims’ money and eventually the criminals off-ramped more than $5 million in cryptocurrency without being caught.
“While she may have contributed a couple hundred thousand dollars to this scam, they were able to ultimately see millions of dollars accumulating in this final wallet,” Chavis said.
The IRS Criminal Division has recently set up an online tipline for cases like Holder’s.
“Do not be ashamed. These are highly sophisticated scams and anyone can be a victim,” Chavis said.
To avoid these types of scams, Chavis said, the most important thing to do in these moments is slow down and take a step back.
“Oftentimes, if you feel like you’re getting a communication from an entity, verify with that entity that they’re actually communicating with you before you just click or take the bait of what’s coming in that communication,” Chavis said, adding, “Oftentimes that urgency to just click something without double-checking, then you’re one step too late. It’s already been done.”
Investigators say the sooner victims report, the better chance they have of identifying the perpetrators.
Chavis’s team of special agents has been trying to identify other victims of the scam that hooked Holder. They have not been able to identify the perpetrators.
“They could be anywhere in the world,” Chavis said.
Laura Geller contributed to this report.
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