European police have arrested five people in an attempt to take down a criminal network believed to have made €89 million ($98 million) from tens of thousands of victims through investment fraud.
According to Europol, about 33 German law enforcement officers, working with colleagues in Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Israel, searched 15 locations, including five illegal call centers.
For more information on law enforcement action against scammers, see Europolice Takes Down Multi-Million Dollar Crypto Fraud Gang.
The two Action Days in March are a follow-up to an operation carried out against the same criminal gang in 2021, in which police have paid far more than the €15 million initially estimated by the victims. We were able to gather new evidence that
According to Europol, scammers lured potential victims through legitimate-looking website advertisements and social media into making a small initial investment of €200-250.
The contact center employee then called the individual, presented them with a fake “picture” of allegedly already making a large profit, and deceived them with the promise of an even larger return if they invested more. I was.
Europol argued that persistently low interest rates at the time of the scheme (2019-2021) made riskier investments more attractive to victims.
In reality, all of their funds were transferred directly to the gang members’ bank accounts.
As reported by Information security In 2021, the organized crime group registered 250 domains to support its scheme and hired 100 staff to work in two call centers in Sofia to sell fake binary options.
Europol claimed that suspected gang members recently set up additional call centers in Bulgaria and Romania.
In the latest crackdown, police seized high-value assets such as luxury watches, electronics, cash, bitcoins, bank cards and various documents. An estimated 33,000 victims lost money to gangs.
Investment fraud will cost victims an estimated $3.3 billion in 2022, making it the highest-grossing cybercrime category that year.
