After years of investigations into investment fraud worth millions, a team of investigators has again taken action against suspects in four states. Five suspects were arrested, the Braunschweig police said.
The cybercrime experts from Lower Saxony, headed by the Göttingen public prosecutor’s office in cooperation with Eurojust and Europol, had already been deployed on March 22, as the investigators only now announced for tactical reasons.
The police want to explain details of the large-scale operation at a press conference on Thursday with Lower Saxony’s Minister of the Interior, Daniela Behrens (SPD). In October 2021, more than 100 investigators were deployed in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Cyprus during the first investigative strike against the internationally active online investment fraudsters.
At that time, a suspected perpetrator who had been temporarily arrested in Cyprus was to be extradited to Germany as quickly as possible. During the so-called “Action Day”, numerous computers, laptops, mobile phones and other storage media as well as data and documents were seized. In the following months, the perpetrator structures and the individual acts could be further clarified, it was said about the renewed blow.
Fast and high profit promised
After the first use, the investigators explained that the fraudsters are said to have offered alleged business with financial transactions via various Internet platforms. The victims are made to believe that they will make faster, higher profits in order to persuade them to make further payments. However, nothing happens when requests for payment are made, the money has long since been transferred to various foreign accounts worldwide.
The investigators are currently speaking of more than 33,000 victims with damage of more than 89 million euros. For Germany, the investigators assume more than 5,500 people affected and damage of more than 22 million euros.
