Law enforcement agencies across Europe have made multiple arrests this week as part of a crackdown on criminal networks suspected of running massive crypto investment fraud schemes.
Coordinated by Europol, police have arrested 14 people in Serbia, 1 person in Germany, and interrogated 261 people in the two countries, in addition to Cyprus and Bulgaria, as part of the action day on 11 January.
According to Europol, around 22 locations were searched, including private homes and four call centers believed to have been used in the scheme.
“The suspect used advertisements on social networks to lure victims to a website secretly operated by criminals and appeared to offer them the opportunity to invest in cryptocurrencies,” the police said. explained.
“Victims are primarily from Germany and initially invest low triple-digit amounts. False price increases that appear to give investors a favorable return make them remit larger amounts. I was persuaded.”
Police estimated economic losses for the German victims at around €2 million ($2 million), but the number of unreported cases was much higher, with victims likely also in Switzerland, Australia and Canada. claimed to be of high quality.
Criminal groups may have made hundreds of millions of euros as a result of fraud schemes that used call center scammers to convince victims to part with their cash, it said.
Police found three hardware wallets containing about $1 million worth of cryptocurrency, €50,000 ($54,000) in cash, three vehicles, electronic equipment and data backups, and various documents that day. was seized.
Call center operations are becoming an increasingly popular way for scam rings to social engineer victims.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian police arrested a call center operator accused of defrauding an estimated 18,000 Kazakhstani victims. Staff called Target, claiming he worked in the IT department at the bank.
