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Lam started the social engineering enterprise with two roommates while living in Texas. Over the following months, the group grew to 14 members from California, Connecticut, New York, and Florida, as well as outside the United States. The group targeted people with large amounts of cryptocurrency, identified through hacked databases, information purchased on the dark web, and phishing e-mails. The stolen currency would then be laundered and cashed out into physical fiat money. By 2024, members of the group began arming themselves with guns, and on 8 July of the same year, the group burglarized the home of a victim in New Mexico, stealing hardware containing cryptocurrency.