CEO of Silent Push discussing cybercrime elimination: "It's a continuous game of cat and mouse"
In a significant move against cybercrime, Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based company, was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in May 2022. The sanctions were imposed due to Funnull's role in facilitating fraudulent financial activities that reportedly led to substantial losses for victims.
Since the sanctions announcement, Funnull has remained a focus of U.S. government actions aimed at curbing its illicit influence. As of mid-2025, ongoing enforcement efforts and related cybercrime investigations continue in the broader internet crime ecosystem. However, specific public updates about Funnull’s operational status after the sanctions are limited.
Despite the lack of detailed current operational updates, the sanctions typically impose significant restrictions that diminish the company’s abilities and impact within the financial scam ecosystem. These restrictions severely limit Funnull’s capacity to participate in financial transactions connected to scams and virtual currencies, thereby protecting potential victims from further fraud.
The Cyber Crime Atlas project, an international effort to disrupt cybercrime, has been tracking Funnull since 2021. The aim of the project is to map out relationships between criminal groups, ultimately breaking up the entire ecosystem of cybercrime. By providing free access to its platform, data, and analysts, the project aims to support global efforts against cybercrime.
The Cyber Crime Atlas project has uncovered that Funnull is linked to the majority of virtual currency investment scam websites reported to the FBI. The FBI issued an alert listing hundreds of thousands of domains linked to Funnull's infrastructure, with US victims alone losing more than $200 million due to Funnull's activities, with an average loss of $150,000 per individual.
The scale of the cybercrime infrastructure is described as "ridiculously large," and cybercrime operators based in China, North Korea, and Russia often operate with tacit approval or outright support from their governments. Bagnall, a leading expert in the field, compares the situation of cybercrime to the historical period of privateers, where certain crimes were tolerated if they didn't affect the home country and brought money home.
As the battle against cybercrime continues, international collaboration and action are crucial. The World Economic Forum is collaborating with Bagnall's firm on the Cyber Crime Atlas project, working together to disrupt cybercrime and protect global financial systems. The project's efforts, along with ongoing enforcement actions, represent a significant step forward in the fight against cybercrime.
- The U.S. Department of the Treasury's sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc., a Philippines-based company, in 2022, were imposed due to its role in facilitating cybersecurity-related fraudulent financial activities.
- In the broader context of internet crime, Funnull has been a focus of ongoing enforcement efforts and related cybersecurity investigations since the sanctions announcement.
- The Cyber Crime Atlas project, an international initiative aimed at disrupting cybersecurity-related crimes, has been monitoring Funull's activities since 2021 and has discovered its links to a majority of virtual currency investment scam websites.
- The World Economic Forum is collaborating with Bagnall's firm on the Cyber Crime Atlas project, with the goal of enhancing technology-related efforts to disrupt cybercrime and protect global data-and-cloud-computing systems.
