The authorities of Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus eliminate the network of crypto scammers

The authorities of Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and Cyprus, in cooperation with Europol, liquidated the cryptocurrency networkscammers.

“The suspects used advertising insocial networks to lure victims to sites secretly operated by criminals that offered seemingly exclusive investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies”, – Europol said. Europol announced on Thursday that authorities in Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus and Germany, in cooperation with Europol and Eurojust, have dismantled “call centers selling fake cryptocurrencies.”

The criminal network, operating through call centers, “lured victims to invest large sums of money in fake cryptocurrency schemes”, – Europol explained.

15 people were arrested in the case, 261 peoplewas questioned and searches were carried out in 22 places, including four call centers. Authorities also seized three hardware wallets containing about $1 million in cryptocurrencies, about 50,000 euros in cash, three cars, electronic equipment, documents and data backups. The victims, mostly from Germany, were initially persuaded to invest small amounts of money. “False price spikes leading to supposedly lucrative returns for investors then convinced them to transfer larger amounts”, – noted in the EU law enforcement agency. It is currently estimated that the financial damage caused to German victims amounts to more than two million euros. Europol also said there were casualties in other countries, including Switzerland, Australia and Canada.