Europol Arrests Five Individuals Involved in Online Investment Fraud Ring

Europol and Eurojust have announced the arrest of five individuals in connection to a massive online investment fraud ring.

The fraud scheme allegedly ran between 2019 and 2021 and had at least 33,000 victims who lost an estimated €89 million.

The Fraudulent Operation

The fraudulent operation lured investors through web and social media banner ads, promising big profits. The victims were then contacted by personal financial advisors who promised even higher profits on bigger investments.

The scam involved tricking their targets into committing small amounts of up to €250 as initial investments.

The Arrests

The coordinated action took place across two action days in March and involved the search of 15 locations across Bulgaria, Romania, and Israel.

Last month’s arrests followed and were enabled by evidence and information collected during 2021 coordinated actions in Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Ukraine that targeted the same fraudulent online trading platform for financial services with binary options.

The Call Centers

Approximately 100 employees of the two call centers, located in Sofia, contacted “clients” and advertised pretend financial services in the field of binary options under the guise of financial advisers.

The call center employees had scripts containing predefined conversations and key messaging to convince clients to release more funds. However, a follow-up investigation discovered that the majority of call center workers were unaware of their employer’s participation in a fraudulent scheme.

Other Investment Fraud Ring

Today’s announcement comes after Ukraine’s cyber police and Europol identified and arrested five key members of another international investment fraud ring.

The fraudsters operated from call centers and offices across multiple European countries, including Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Latvia, Finland, and Albania. They tricked potential investors into making fictitious investments via a broad network of websites posing as legitimate portals for cryptocurrency, stocks, bonds, futures, and options investments.