Network selling scam instead of financial services shut down

Over €15 million have been stolen from German investors by scammers. Company based in Ukraine which set up two call centers in Bulgaria suspected of conducting financial scam. Network participants who operated between May 2019 and September 2021 are now under investigation.

Fake financial services advertised via social media and online

The suspects advertised their fake services via social media and online using over 250 domain names. Employees reached out to the potential clients offering their service as financial advisors. Clients invest money but never get back their profits or see credit balance if they demand it. These two call centers in Sofia used prewritten scripts to hook the victims and initial profits shown in the interface to promise more. In the course of the investigation, most employees confessed they didn’t know it was a scam company. Nearly 100 people were hired in those call centers. Sounds like a poor remake of The Wolf of Wall Street scenario – but it is real.¹.

Ukraine, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Germany supported by Eurojust and Europol joined their law forces against organized crime groups. During the action days, Europol sent experts to Ukraine, Cyprus and Bulgaria to back up investigative information with Europol`s database. This should have provided leads to the investigators on the field. Also, technical experts worked on the case to help extract the information from IT infrastructure and mobile devices. Eurojust created a coordination center where joint authorities` forces could exchange information and get support. Altogether 246 criminal proceedings from 15 German federal states started to proceed.²

What is binary options and how to play safe with them?

A binary option is a financial product where the transaction is based on the expiration of the option in money (not in the underlying product). The outcome depends on whether the binary option gets a “yes or no” proposition. Exactly, the name “binary” comes from this. Traders get profit if the price goes in the direction they chose. Again – no conversions to real assets (stocks or currency) are done, hence, companies who offer binary options must not have any broker license. It is very easy to be deceived there.

These options have an expiry time and /or date. It automatically exercises which means the trader gets a profit or loses invested money. Accordingly, the seller of the option returns the full pay or retains the buyer’s premium. In “normal” options, your counterparty will give you the agreed assets in the amount the option presumes. After that, you are free to manage these stocks or currency units as you wish.

How to distinguish a scam?

It’s wise to know how to save yourself from these binary options scammers. It’s easy to do just to keep to the simple advice. Scammers often reach the potential victims through social media, they create ads for websites that look professional and well refurbished. Often those scam firms have prestigious big city addresses. Scammers manipulate their software to change prices and payments and then if it’s time for them to disappear they close the victim’s account. No money in return.

The red flag in any scam is that they offer you the most unbelievable prices just so to lure you to invest money. The simplest advice is that any firm or organization offering you an investment try to check it to be sure with the authorized organization in your country and also check your local regulations for binary trading and if you feel like something is out then the best would be to stay away. Another sign of a 100% scam is the absence of any kind of license (banking, brokerage, etc). Such companies does not carry any responsibility on your financial losses, as well as on money returns. You may check if the license is real on the FINRA website.

1. In that film, the main actions took place in a similar organization – one that was calling random people and offering them financial services.
2. https://The report of Europol on this event