Ukrainian Police Bust Crypto Call Centers Defrauding Investors Across Europe – A crime syndicate that organized plans to steal money from people in the country and many EU countries has been dismantled by agents from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Main Investigative Department of the National Police of Ukraine. Investors were invited to take part in exchange trading of digital assets, securities, and commodities by the group’s members.
Investigators discovered that in order to get credit card information, the scammers set up a network of contact centers and pretended to be representatives of state banking institutions. They were able to alter their phone numbers so that they seemed to be the official numbers of the banks by using advanced equipment and software.
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The scheme’s organizers used fictitious websites and exchange platforms to trade in securities, gold, oil, fiat and digital currencies. The National Police of Ukraine explained in a news statement issued on Tuesday that in order to attract investment capital, they made promises of excessive profits in a short amount of time.
Additionally, the fraudsters got access to a database that contained the contact information of foreign nationals who had previously been the targets of similar schemes. They offered to seek down and return the victims’ stolen cryptocurrency in exchange for a “commission” on behalf of a purported “Community of cryptocurrency brokers.”
These people received information regarding the transfer of the commission to accounts controlled by the members in the criminal scheme after accepting the nonexistent entity’s services. The brokers abruptly cut off communication after receiving the money, and the missing cryptocurrency was never recovered.
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Ukrainian Police Bust Crypto Call Centers Defrauding Investors Across Europe – Computer hardware, mobile phones, and documents attesting to the illicit operations were seized during searches by Ukrainian law enforcement at the call center sites. The criminals may receive up to 12 years in prison if they are found guilty under the terms of Ukraine’s Criminal Code of large-scale organized fraud and the use, distribution, or sale of harmful software.
