report
The fraud with marked financial portals on the Internet causes billions in damage in Germany. Highly organized gangs are behind the portals. A former member shares exclusive insights.
Finally. Things are going well for Adrian. New girlfriend, new job – and what a job: a lot of money. Finally enough for clothes, parties, alcohol. For coke too. Adrian is in his early 20s when he thinks he’s hit the jackpot. He doesn’t care that the money is stolen.
Adrian is Kosovar and has a different name. He remains anonymous because he tells about the time when he was a member of a gang of scammers. This had deprived private investors from Germany and Austria of their savings with false online portals for financial betting – so-called cybertrading portals.
Bad mood “not productive”
Adrian worked in a call center and posed as a financial expert on the phone. Task: persuade German-speaking investors to make large deposits. Investigators assume that this gang caused damage of around 115 million euros. And to this day, according to investigators, there are numerous criminal organizations of this type.
In conversation with the SR Adrian tells exclusively about the tricks such gangs use to cheat their victims and how it works in the inner circles of this multi-million scam.
“There couldn’t be a bad mood,” he says. Because a telephone scammer in a bad mood is “not productive”. So he created a mood: Adrian started his office day “with Jäger and one or two dashes” – with Jägermeister and cocaine. That took away his fear of not sounding convincing.
One of the photos leaked to the SR: There shouldn’t be a bad mood in the call center in Pristina.
Earn trust over the phone
Among others, Ulrike Schneider (name changed). She had come across an advertising clip on the Internet. The TradeInvest90 platform can turn 250 euros into several thousand within four weeks. That sounded like a really good deal. Ulrike Schneider got on board and was given a telephone broker by TradeInvest90.
But Schneider’s “broker” was a colleague of Adrian’s, a member of the same gang of fraudsters. And he did his job quickly and conscientiously. He soon managed to gain Schneider’s trust: “Then private things were exchanged.” At least that’s what she thought. “His wife was in the hospital and is said to have had a child.” Such chats created “a great relationship of trust”. And Ulrike Schneider paid in 10,000 euros.
Adrian also said all sorts of things on the phone, “only that the customer makes the deposit”. A little sample: “I worked on the stock exchange, I worked in England.” No matter what: “It worked 90 percent of the time.” The only goal: to build trust.
Car or apartment as a success bonus
Schneider’s trust was only used up when her trading account was emptied and she realized she was being scammed. According to the investigators, the investors’ money flowed directly into the fraud network: for example into the call centers, into advertising or manipulation software for the platforms. The rest went to show off and the extravagant lifestyle.
Photos and videos of the gang of scammers who dem SR leaked show gold watches, sports cars, a lavish end-of-year party. Successful call center agents got a car or an apartment, says Adrian. “You have to motivate the employees.”
This is a stark contrast to everyday life in Kosovo, where the average monthly income is less than 400 euros. “Either work as a waiter, earn 300 euros, or work there and get a few thousand. What would you do?” Asks Adrian. He and the other call center agents found their answer.
Some have gambled away their retirement savings
The victims are sometimes faced with the ruins of their existence: “There are many victims who have lost their old-age provision,” says Chief Inspector Stefan Planz from the Saarland State Criminal Police Office.
Some victims would have mortgaged their life insurance or taken out loans. The highest single damage in the investigation file: 5.5 million euros.
The Saarbrücken authorities put a stop to the gang, which Adrian and Ulrike Schneiders Broker belonged to, with painstaking detailed work. A call center manager – one of Adrian’s ex-bosses – is now in prison in Saarbrücken, sentenced to twelve years in prison for multiple commercial gang fraud. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The call center manager poses in front of expensive cars.
Only two gang members sit in jail
It is the biggest blow that German investigators have hit against the cyber scam so far. On the one hand. On the other hand: Of the more than 400 members of this gang, only two are currently in prison in Saarbrücken. For example, Kosovo does not extradite its own citizens. And the alleged head of the gang, a German, died in custody in 2020 from a drug overdose.
Ulrike Schneider and the thousands of other victims can only be more careful in the future. Because the scam with fraudulent trading portals continues to flourish. And Adrian would have no scruples about getting back on board either: “If I was able to do it, I would do it.”