Fake Instagram Relationship Cost $211K but Losses Didn’t End at Arrest

Key Takeaways

A Grocery Store Pickup Became a Police Sting

Kuan Tsou’s sentence and restitution order were announced Oct. 7 by Alabama Securities Commission (ASC) Director Amanda Senn and Azzie Oliver, district attorney for Alabama’s 15th Judicial Circuit. Circuit Judge J. R. Gaines sentenced Tsou, 28, to five years, split to serve one year, for conspiracy involving aggravated theft by deception and financial exploitation of an elder person. He must repay $211,000 and is permanently barred from Alabama’s securities industry.

The sentencing followed a sting in which a box supposedly containing $300,000 instead held cut-up paper when Tsou collected it outside a Montgomery grocery store. The victim arrived with an undercover officer on Aug. 22, 2025, after Tsou flew from California that morning. Montgomery Police Department SWAT officers, members of a special weapons and tactics team, stopped and arrested him as he exited the parking lot.

Before the sting, agents from ASC, Alabama’s securities regulator, confirmed the fraud during a home visit and helped negotiate the supposed payment. Senn stated:

“It is not often that we are able to intercept international criminal operations in cryptocurrency cases.”

Investigators determined that Tsou belonged to a larger organization and had spent months collecting cash and precious metals nationwide, keeping or receiving a percentage. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s warning about crypto scam cash couriers describes how fraudulent platforms arrange public pickups. Tsou has been held by the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office since Aug. 25, 2025.

An Instagram Relationship Led to a Fake Bybit Platform

The scheme began in spring 2025 when the Montgomery resident met someone on Instagram claiming to be a woman living in New York. Their conversations moved to WhatsApp, where a relationship developed before cryptocurrency investing entered the discussion. Investigators later traced the correspondent to Southeast Asia; the photographs depicted a real New Yorker with no established involvement in the crime.

The purported investment used Bybit’s name, but the resident sent money to a fake crypto exchange rather than the legitimate business. An initial $45,000 payment appeared profitable, followed by a supposed $160,000 loan that the customer repaid along with $6,000 in fees.

After collecting $211,000, the fraudulent operation demanded approximately $385,000 more, prompting the attempted retirement withdrawal that alerted the investment adviser. The progression from an online relationship to fabricated gains and escalating payment demands followed the pattern the commission described as pig butchering: criminals cultivate trust before drawing people into fraudulent investments. Separately, the Justice Department’s Scam Center Strike Force had restrained roughly $938 million in cryptocurrency as of a Sept. 9 announcement.

The Arrest Did Not End the Victim’s Losses

The Montgomery account holder kept communicating with other unknown people online and sending money after Tsou’s arrest, ASC reported. Investigators put total losses across pig butchering schemes at approximately $270,000 and estimated that financial institution and agency intervention prevented that figure from reaching about $600,000.

The continuing payments prompted the family to seek a conservator, a court-appointed person who would manage the individual’s financial affairs. Agency personnel testified in support of the petition, but the court declined to approve the arrangement after hearing evidence. Senn described the difficulty of protecting vulnerable adults while preserving their dignity and freedom to make everyday decisions.

Federal efforts to limit similar losses include FBI outreach to people targeted by crypto fraud through Operation Level Up, which began in January 2024. The bureau identifies those caught in deceptive investments and alerts them before they send more funds.

Separate refund protections for qualifying crypto ATM scam victims took effect Oct. 1 in Alabama, covering kiosk transactions rather than this type of in-person collection.

Relatives remain concerned that further transfers could exhaust the individual’s assets and create financial dependence.