The U.S. Department of Justice is cracking down on yet another cryptocurrency fraud ploy.

The losses amount to tens of millions, and it’s expected that more will be identified.

An Elaborate Scheme

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Washington filed a civil action on Tuesday, demanding the forfeiture of cryptocurrency assets valued at roughly $7.1 million. The funds were seized during an investigation into a scheme involving fraudulent investment in oil and gas, which Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller announced.

The assets are only a fraction of the $97 million obtained by coconspirators between June 2022 and July 2024, which Homeland Security Investigations seized in December last year.

“The co-schemers in this fraud moved their ill-gotten gain through various cryptocurrency accounts to try to launder the money stolen from victims,” said Attorney Miller.

“Federal investigators and prosecutors in our office moved as quickly as possible to trace and seize the cryptocurrency so that some of the losses can be returned to victims.”

According to the filing and other case records, the plot was presented as escrow accounts for purchasing oil tank storage in either Rotterdam, the Netherlands, or Houston, which spanned from at least August 2022 through August 2024.

The victims were convinced to send money to these accounts, where the conspirators indicated that investors could make significant profits by renting out the oil tank storage to others. At least seven separate entities have been marked where funds were sent.

However, the good news ended there, as once the funds were sent, no further information on the investment was provided, and the co-schemers just stopped replying.

How The Funds Were Moved

A resident from Newcastle, Washington, Geoffrey K. Auyeung, 47, was indicted as a coconspirator in the U.S in August 2024, being charged with receiving the majority of the funds generated by the deceptive plan.

The money was quickly shuffled to one or more of at least 81 accounts at various institutions, either offshore or not, or to one of the at least 19 different crypto accounts.

The assets were then funneled into various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, USDT, USDC, and Ethereum, the majority of which was further transferred to accounts at the Binance exchange.

The forfeiture filing further states that the crypto accounts, which were seized, were linked to individuals in Russia and Nigeria, where some of the victims’ funds, used to purchase digital assets, were also sent to exchanges in those countries.

At least one of the money markets in Russia or Nigeria is alleged to have facilitated money laundering for transnational criminal organizations, including terrorist organizations and other parties that have been known to violate international trade sanctions.

At the time of Auyeung’s arrest, $2.3 million was seized from his bank accounts, which is in addition to the $7.1 million in crypto the government is seeking to forfeit.

If the court approves the forfeiture, the funds will be distributed accordingly to the victims. Investigators, so far, have identified dozens of such cases, with the total amount of exploits reaching approximately $17.9 million, which is expected to grow as more casualties are identified.

Cloud storage should do more than hold your files — it should protect them. That’s exactly what Internxt was built to do, and right now, new users can grab a lifetime subscription to 20TB of Internxt Cloud Storage for just $389.97 (down from $4,900). No monthly fees. No renewal reminders. Just total control, forever.

Internxt is a privacy-first alternative to the usual cloud giants. Everything you store is end-to-end encrypted and broken into smaller pieces for maximum security. Your data isn’t just stored safely — it’s protected by zero-knowledge encryption, meaning only you can access your files. Not even Internxt can peek.

And with apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and web browsers, you can access your cloud from pretty much any device, anywhere. It’s intuitive, speedy, and includes Post-Quantum Encryption, so your data stays protected even as tech evolves.

Whether you’re a small business backing up sensitive documents, a video editor saving huge project files, or just someone with a growing media library, this gives you serious space without the long-term, ongoing subscription drain.

Get 20TB of Internxt Cloud Storage for just $389.97 (reg. $4,900) through August 3.

Internxt Cloud Storage Lifetime Subscription (20TB)See Deal

StackSocial prices subject to change.

We’re used to nice savings on Apple’s MacBook Air, but we can’t remember the last time we saw such a huge discount—even on last year’s model. The 15-inch MacBook Air with 512GB of storage is only $999 at B&H Photo right now, a whopping savings of $500 and the best price we’ve seen—or will likely ever see.

Powered by last year’s M3 chip, this MacBook Air will still deliver swift performance for a wide range of tasks, from editing photos and videos to doomscrolling your socials. It’s got a fantastic 15-inch Liquid Retina screen that’s great for multitasking and movie watching, and the inclusion of a 512GB SSD (twice the base model) offers ample storage for your applications and files. The only downside is that it only has 8GB of RAM, but that’s still plenty for most tasks.

When we reviewed the M3 MacBook Air last year, we summed up the laptop as “simply the best, but better,” appreciating the performance boost delivered by the M3 chip. We have the laptop with a 4.5-star rating, appreciating its overall performance, excellent battery life, and the great combination of price and features.

And now that you can get this powerful M3 MacBook Air for only $999 it’s an absolute bargain that you should not miss.

Take $500 off for this MacBook Air

Apple offers pretty good prices on the standard configurations of its Macs. $599 for a M4 Mac mini? $999 for a new M4 MacBook Air? $1,299 for a new M4 iMac? Those are attractively priced. But those prices involve a few sacrifices, most notably the starting storage of just 256GB. A quarter of a terabyte might sound like a lot, but much of what we do on the Mac involves large files–high-resolution pictures, videos, games (literally the biggest culprit), and a lot more. 256GB runs out quickly.

Apple does give customers the option to upgrade storage at the point of purchase, of course, but their prices are steep. Upgrading from 256GB to 512GB (the minimum amount we recommend) is an extra $200/£200, and jumping to a terabyte is another $200, turning an attractive entry-level offering into a pricey one.

But if you don’t want to plunk down the extra money, you can still expand your Mac’s storage without paying Apple’s exorbitant prices. The alternatives here are mostly external storage solutions–in other words, you’ll need to carry and plug in an extra device–but the compromise can help you meet your budget.

External SSDs and hard drives

An external storage device offers the best combination of price and capacity. For example, you can get a 1TB LaCie Mobile Drive for about $80/£56 on Amazon that connects to your Mac via USB-C. LaCie sells that same drive with 5TB of storage for less than $170/£115–still lower than the upgrade to 512GB of internal storage on a Mac.

With external drives, you can opt for a hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs (which are used internally on the Mac) are faster and higher-priced than hard drives. You can also choose between desktop drives that have a larger design and require you to plug it into a power outlet, or portable drives that are small enough to fit in a bag or pocket and are powered through the Mac’s Thunderbolt or USB port.

External drives use either USB-C or Thunderbolt to connect to the Mac. Thunderbolt drives are more expensive but faster, while cheaper USB-C-only drives often support slower data transfer rates. Learn more about the differences between Thunderbolt and USB.

Macworld has guides to the best external SSDs and the best external hard drives to help you find the best device for you.

USB flash drives

Often called “thumb drives” or “memory sticks,” a USB flash drive is essentially a stick of flash memory that plugs into a USB port. They’re small and easy to stash in a bag or pocket. They are available in capacities as high as 2TB, but 128GB and 256GB capacities are most commonly found, often for less than $30, such as this Samsung flash drive.

USB flash drives vary in price based on capacity and speed. Some have additional features such as a USB-A plug on one end and a USB-C plug on the other, or built-in encryption.

You can leave a USB flash drive plugged in, but if you are going to frequently read and write to the drive, you’ll want to opt for a portable or desktop drive instead. USB flash drives are more prone to wearing out than a full-fledged drive because flash memory has limited durability and USB flash drives don’t have the measures in place to maintain proper health. Also, they tend to use lower-quality parts so they can be cheap and treated as commodities (for example, the corner near my home sells USB flash drives).

While you don’t want to rely on USB flash drives are primary storage, they’re handy for, say, storing photos or videos from a shoot, file management when you want to keep files for a project separate from everything else, backups, and more.

SD cards

SDXC cards are memory cards often used in cameras and other portable devices, but you can also use them on the Mac. Only two Macs (MacBook Pro and Mac Studio) have built-in SDXC Card slots, however. For every other Mac, you must buy an SD Card adapter, which is inexpensive at about $10/£10. You can also find hubs and Thunderbolt docks with card slots if you plan to buy one anyway.

SDXC cards are good for uses similar to USB flash drives: file transfers, specifically storing files for projects, backups, and more. They have similar issues regarding the memory chips wearing out; they are more reliable because they use higher-quality memory, but they aren’t ideal as a drive that is always connected, and you are frequently reading and writing files to.

If you plan to use an SDXC card as a method of transferring files between Macs or other devices, consider buying another card as a backup. I’ve had instances where the metal contacts for the card get worn out or damaged from frequent insertions into devices. These cards did have several years of mileage on them but understand that they’re delicate relative to other storage devices mentioned here.

Cards are available in capacities between 32GB and 2TB and are available at different speeds. The higher capacity/faster cards can be more expensive than an external SSD drive of the same capacity, as you’re paying a premium for the extremely small size.

Network-attached storage

If you’re not familiar with network-attached storage (NAS), think of it as cloud storage, but specifically for your home. A NAS device connects to your home network, and your Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows PCs and Android devices can access it whenever necessary. A NAS device is a good way to store files that need to be accessed by several devices or users, or it can be a way for individual users to move files from a device to free up space.

Because the NAS device connects to a network, the setup isn’t as simple as plug-and-play, but it’s not too difficult. Once it’s up and running, you can access it either through the Network menu in the Finder, or through an app, browser, or both. Some NAS devices can provide access when you’re away from home, but this may require using a paid service from the device’s company.

NAS devices range from ones with fixed hard drives starting at 2TB for $150/£150 to drives with multiple removable hard drives with capacities over 8TB and other features for several hundreds of dollars. Check out our picks for the best NAS drive for Mac if you’re interested.

Cloud storage

Cloud storage is provided by a service online for a fee, usually a subscription. Apple offers iCloud, which includes iCloud Drive along with other services. Other popular cloud storage providers include Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Box. Learn more about the best cloud storage services for the Mac.

What’s great about cloud storage is that it is accessible by almost any device that has an internet connection. But because your ability to access it is reliant on the internet, cloud storage shouldn’t be used as primary storage. It’s good for storing files you want to access but not ones you use frequently, things like backups, photo and video storage, and file transfers. But it’s a great way to free up space on your Mac’s drive.

Also, since you have to pay a recurring fee, you’ll need to figure out how the cost benefits you. Many services have a free tier with a small allocation of storage; for example, iCloud Drive offers 5GB free. That limits what you can do.

Mac mini and Mac Studio SSD upgrades

The M4 Mac mini and the Mac Studio have internal SSDs that are installed in slots, which makes them upgradeable but Apple doesn’t officially support upgrades after purchase by the company, a third party, or by do-it-yourselfers. Some small companies have released SSD upgrade kits, such as Expand Mac mini and PolySoft Services with video instructions on their websites.

The installations for these kits aren’t trivial but if your mechanical aptitude is limited, you should be able to do this. There is a risk of damaging your Mac and this installation could void your warranty, especially if there is obvious evidence of your work.

If you have an M2 Mac mini there are other ways to upgrade its memory. Learn more.