On March 22, 2023, investigators from the FK Cybercrime of the ZKI Braunschweig under the direction of the Göttingen public prosecutor's office in cooperation with Eurojust and Europol carried out another international operation in four countries, during which, in addition to securing numerous other pieces of evidence and securing assets, five defendants were also arrested between the ages of 29 and 51 could be arrested in other European countries.
The deceptive practices of cyber trading: A comprehensive investigation
The extensive investigation is directed against a group of perpetrators in the area of so-called cyber trading. In this crime phenomenon, which has frequently occurred in recent years, alleged financial experts, who usually call from call centers abroad, advise potential victims about supposedly lucrative investment and financial products.
Investors are deceived into believing that the invested amounts are actually being invested profitably and will be paid out upon request along with the profits made. The perpetrators communicate in a highly professional manner according to a specially prepared script, which covers all theoretically possible alternative courses of action for potential investors and explains the possible reactions of the supposed financial expert.
The aim of the supposed financial expert is regularly to persuade the injured party to initially make a relatively small investment of 200 to 250 euros. He is then deceived by using trading platforms on which a customer account is set up for him that his investment is developing rapidly and positively. The deposited funds will not be used for capital investment at any time. The trading platform visible to the customer, like the alleged customer account, is created exclusively for purposes of deception.
As soon as an investor requests a (partial) payout, contact with his supposed customer advisor is regularly lost or the investment suffers a total loss as a result of a surprising collapse. Legally, this phenomenon can be classified as commercial and gang fraud, for which the law provides for a prison sentence of one to ten years.
The investigations in the proceedings pending here are directed against the fraudulent online platforms “fx-leader.com” (later “fxleader.com” and “swiscapital.com”), “invcenter.com”, “interactive-trading.com” and “qteck .io”, which, according to previous findings, were operated by the same group of perpetrators. The accused used the platforms mentioned to cause total global damage of at least 89 million euros to over 33,000 victims. In Germany alone, the damage amounts to 22 million euros with over 5,500 victims.
Police and judiciary successful: further raids against cyber trading fraud
The investigative measures that have now been carried out are follow-up measures to the first Action Day, which took place in October 2021. Now 13 properties, including five call centers, have been searched in Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Israel, five European arrest warrants have been executed and numerous witnesses have been interviewed. In addition, numerous pieces of evidence were again confiscated, including 40 cell phones, computers, electronic data carriers and documents. Furthermore, the defendants' assets were secured and their accounts were seized.
A total of 159 police officers were deployed, 34 of them from Lower Saxony. Furthermore, 15 public prosecutors were involved in the access, eight of them in The Hague, including two from the Göttingen public prosecutor's office, two in Romania, three in Bulgaria and two in Georgia
Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Daniela Behrens explains:
“The Lower Saxony police have achieved an impressive investigative success in exemplary cooperation with the judiciary and international law enforcement authorities. The work of the FK Cybercrime Braunschweig investigation group shows that our police are technically and operationally capable of solving highly complex cybercrime and fraud cases and of pursuing and arresting perpetrators across national borders.
This case makes it clear in an exemplary manner: the more the activities of criminals shift into the digital space, the more important innovative technical solutions and functioning international cooperation become for investigative work and criminal prosecution.”
Joint international operation against digital crime: successful investigations and arrests
Lower Saxony's Justice Minister Kathrin Wahlmann praises the successful investigation:
“Crime is increasingly shifting to the digital world. The perpetrators have adapted their methods and organized themselves professionally. However, this international operation by the Lower Saxony law enforcement authorities under the direction of the Göttingen public prosecutor's office makes it clear once again that the Internet is not an area free from punishment. By setting up specialized public prosecutors' offices to combat internet and computer crime, the law enforcement authorities have pooled the necessary expertise and positioned themselves well.
Even on the supposedly anonymous Internet, they are able to identify the perpetrators beyond their own national borders and then bring them under German jurisdiction. I would therefore like to thank the Göttingen public prosecutor's office, in particular the Central Office for Internet and Computer Crime, and their investigators for their excellent work and congratulate them on this successful search."
Source:
Press portal
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