Authorities from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany and Serbia, along with support from Europol and Eurojust, have cracked down on organized crime groups involved in online investment fraud.
The criminal network, comprising various actors operating through call centres, had been tricking victims into investing large sums of money in fake cryptocurrency schemes.
According to official sources, criminals used advertisements on social media to lure victims to websites covertly operated by them, which offered seemingly exceptional investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies.
Did you know?
Want to get smarter & wealthier with crypto?
Subscribe - We publish new crypto explainer videos every week!
How to Trade NFTs Safely? (Animated Explainer For Beginners)
The victims, mainly from Germany, were first persuaded to invest small sums, and then fake price hikes were used to convince them to make larger transfers. The financial damage to German victims alone is estimated to be over €2 million. Victims have also been identified in other countries such as Switzerland, Australia and Canada.
The investigation suggests that the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, with illegal gains generated by the criminal groups potentially reaching into the hundreds of millions of euros.
“Europol has supported this investigation since June 2022 following an initial request from Germany. During the course of the investigation, Europol facilitated the information exchange, provided analytical support and coordinated operational activities,” says Europol.
In 2021, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) in Stuttgart and the State Office of Criminal Investigations of Baden-Württemberg began looking into the online scam. Eurojust organized a meeting in November 2022 to plan for the operation and provided assistance in the form of judicial, logistical, and financial support to the JIT.
In other news, a scam costs an NFT influencer a "life-changing" amount of digital assets.
