It is the largest call center fraud in Europe to date: investigators have uncovered a network of telephone fraudsters in five countries and arrested 21 people. The scams were varied.
Investigators from Germany and several Balkan countries have dismantled a large Europe-wide network of telephone fraudsters. The case is “probably the largest call center fraud in Europe,” explained several Baden-Württemberg authorities together in Stuttgart.
Since December, more than 100 officers have been working in shifts and have secured 1.3 million telephone fraud calls. In mid-April, 21 people were arrested in large-scale searches together with Europol in five countries, primarily in the Western Balkans. Twelve call centers were destroyed.
The fraudsters are said to have covered the entire spectrum of fraud variants. For example, they are said to have posed as close relatives, bank employees, employees of the consumer advice center or as police officers in order to defraud victims with threats of punishment, promises of prizes or debt collection demands.
Strobl: “Perfidious and unscrupulous”
Investigators prevented damage totaling around ten million euros in around 6,000 cases. There were missions in Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Lebanon. The operations were coordinated by a prosecutor from the European police authority Europol in The Hague, Netherlands.
“Fraudulent call crimes are particularly perfidious and unscrupulous because they play on people’s fears and needs,” explained Baden-Württemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl. Action will be taken against these criminals “with the utmost severity and consistency,” he added.