Call centres selling fake crypto taken down in Bulgaria, Serbia and Cyprus

[PawGo]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

From time to time we may hear about people who received a phone calls with a very attractive investment proposal. Many of that people accepted the risk and gave their money to scammers. It looks like for some time we will have much less phone calls like that, as many centres has been taken down.

Some details on Europol page: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/call-centres-selling-fake-crypto-taken-down-in-bulgaria-serbia-and-cyprus

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

[uneng]

These must be the well known ponzi schemes we usually see being promoted on the internet, where they promise you can earn huge interest in short periods of time. I thought these schemes weren't popular anymore, after so many people losing lots of bitcoins years ago, but it seems europeans aren't aware about the risks of depositing in such platforms, as they have lost 2$ million euros to those scammers. Glad the scammers were tracked and found. On the contrary of what they imagine, crypto environment isn't a lawless land, at least on these cases... If they had regularized their ponzi business, they could end like Celsius, with the justice by their side legitimizing the theft.

How contradictory and hypocrite authorities are...

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

Probably it was a mistake when typing.

[serveria.com]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

From time to time we may hear about people who received a phone calls with a very attractive investment proposal. Many of that people accepted the risk and gave their money to scammers. It looks like for some time we will have much less phone calls like that, as many centres has been taken down.

Some details on Europol page: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/call-centres-selling-fake-crypto-taken-down-in-bulgaria-serbia-and-cyprus

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

These guys are really annoying. Last time they called me from Warsaw, Poland (perhaps relocated?). I still can't believe how many people are becoming victims of these scam calls. Every time I hear about them in the news, they're reporting MILLIONS in scammed funds. How can people be so gullible? Do some still believe the Nigerian prince's treasure exists? 

[Z-tight]

I still can't believe how many people are becoming victims of these scam calls. Every time I hear about them in the news, they're reporting MILLIONS in scammed funds. How can people be so gullible?

The reported numbers of people who have become victims of these scams are really high, but what about the unreported cases, they surely must be higher than those the authorities can track and find out, and while reading the link in the op, it says the same thing:

The investigation suggests that the number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher. This would mean that the illegal gains generated by the criminal groups, with at least four call centres in eastern Europe, may be in the hundreds of millions of euro.

There are so many cases of these crypto scams going on all over the world without any trace, some are carried out in a sophisticated way, while others may just be carried out locally by a small group of people. The lesson is that there are still many people who believe in unrealistic profit through crypto, and as long as people think crypto is a form of get rich opportunity for them, these scams would remain popular and successful.

[Casdinyard]

These must be the well known ponzi schemes we usually see being promoted on the internet, where they promise you can earn huge interest in short periods of time. I thought these schemes weren't popular anymore, after so many people losing lots of bitcoins years ago, but it seems europeans aren't aware about the risks of depositing in such platforms, as they have lost 2$ million euros to those scammers. Glad the scammers were tracked and found. On the contrary of what they imagine, crypto environment isn't a lawless land, at least on these cases... If they had regularized their ponzi business, they could end like Celsius, with the justice by their side legitimizing the theft.

How contradictory and hypocrite authorities are...

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

Probably it was a mistake when typing.

These aren't ponzi schemes at all, as they are literally scamming people out of their own money. Most probably they promise some sort of already existing crypto like bitcoin for instance, in exchange for real life pesos but when things start rolling they don't give the people their due crypto, because they don't have it in them. These people most likely have connections and possible ponds to fish in which would be very integral as these are the literal things that empower such scammers. Once the authorities get a hold of this list, they won't have control anymore.

[uneng]

These aren't ponzi schemes at all, as they are literally scamming people out of their own money. Most probably they promise some sort of already existing crypto like bitcoin for instance, in exchange for real life pesos but when things start rolling they don't give the people their due crypto, because they don't have it in them. These people most likely have connections and possible ponds to fish in which would be very integral as these are the literal things that empower such scammers. Once the authorities get a hold of this list, they won't have control anymore.

It looks a ponzi to me:

The suspects used advertisements on social networks to lure victims to websites covertly operated by the criminals, which offered seemingly exceptional investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies. The victims, mainly from Germany, would first invest low, three-digit sums. Fake price hikes leading to supposedly lucrative profits for investors then persuaded them to make transfers of higher amounts.

When the depositor sends them 3 digits money, he is paid back. That is the bait, so he feels encouraged to deposit larger sums of money, but when he does it, the scammers don't pay him anymore. And to keep the scheme working scammers must use the money they earned with the first victim to pay the second initial investment, and so on... That is what I understood about the method applied by the thieves.

[348Judah]

These must be the well known ponzi schemes we usually see being promoted on the internet, where they promise you can earn huge interest in short periods of time.

This is purely ponzi scheme just as you've mentioned because that's the only avenue one cannbe promised such return within a short period of time, that's why other cryptocurrencies that made this kind of promise like this ended up scamming investors which is the more reason there are crypto scams around the internet everywhere,this kind of a thing cannot be associated with bitcoin because it's decentralized and when dealing with crypto, one has to tlbe specific on which coin or projects he is going for, crypto scam is real but you can always avoid that in choosing bitcoin.

[The Cryptovator]

Recently, I've noticed an increase in Ponzi schemes. So they most likely used this type of call center to promote their Ponzi scheme. In my country, I've seen some Ponzi schemes create an internal token algorithm that does not exist on the Blockchain. I'm assuming you're referring to this type of Ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemers getting advantage from the bear market. People who have lazy money and gamble with Ponzi schemes. However, it is positive to see that they are calming down.

[drwhobox]

These guys are really annoying. Last time they called me from Warsaw, Poland (perhaps relocated?). I still can't believe how many people are becoming victims of these scam calls. Every time I hear about them in the news, they're reporting MILLIONS in scammed funds. How can people be so gullible? Do some still believe the Nigerian prince's treasure exists? 

For you they are annoying but they actually scam people, they target elderly people, who have lack of knowledge about bitcoin or crypto currency. Surprisingly they manage to scam a large amount of funds from the victims.
I enjoy watching them exposed on youtube by scam buster youtubers, they are oddly satisfying to watch.

[serjent05]

These guys are really annoying. Last time they called me from Warsaw, Poland (perhaps relocated?). I still can't believe how many people are becoming victims of these scam calls. Every time I hear about them in the news, they're reporting MILLIONS in scammed funds. How can people be so gullible? Do some still believe the Nigerian prince's treasure exists? 

These people are greedy, and naive, without doing proper research they are swayed to invest or buy Bitcoin by these scammers.  Aside from that these scammers are smooth talkers and make the listener believe that the offer really benefits the listener.


It is really a piece of good news that one of the factors that are making Bitcoin looks bad to the masses had been shut down.  I hope many more of these frauds will be caught and put in jail in the future.

[jrrsparkles]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

From time to time we may hear about people who received a phone calls with a very attractive investment proposal. Many of that people accepted the risk and gave their money to scammers. It looks like for some time we will have much less phone calls like that, as many centres has been taken down.

Some details on Europol page: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/call-centres-selling-fake-crypto-taken-down-in-bulgaria-serbia-and-cyprus

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

We are in 2023 but how there are still people out there who invest their money because they got random person from phone call with an attractive proposal? If they search about the proposal on the Google itself will give what is that exactly means but people are still blind to trust someone and hope they will make them rich.

[Ndabagi01]

It's surprising that people still use simple phone calls to entice people to invest with them. It's ironic that these are the same people who don't trust offline wallets but still choose to store money with anonymous people. Good news from Europol to have taken down most of the crypto fake call centers, it’ll help to reduce people scanning through cryptocurrency and some transparency in its overall use.

[n0ne]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

From time to time we may hear about people who received a phone calls with a very attractive investment proposal. Many of that people accepted the risk and gave their money to scammers. It looks like for some time we will have much less phone calls like that, as many centres has been taken down.

Some details on Europol page: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/call-centres-selling-fake-crypto-taken-down-in-bulgaria-serbia-and-cyprus

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

We are in 2023 but how there are still people out there who invest their money because they got random person from phone call with an attractive proposal? If they search about the proposal on the Google itself will give what is that exactly means but people are still blind to trust someone and hope they will make them rich.

People have connected through internet. Almost from the kids we were able to see each and every activity is now connected to the network in some means. This makes the people to be easy prey for such scams. Another thing, whenever something happens good automatically someone will get into it through some means to collapse its growth. Now these incidents will surely make people fear to invest into cryptocurrencies.

[tabas]

These scammers are taking advantage of the potential come back of the bull run, thus, they're doing large operations like having call centers to offer it to the leads that they've got.
It's so sad to see that there will still be like this continuously and could still get victims as much as they can before they're taken down.

We are in 2023 but how there are still people out there who invest their money because they got random person from phone call with an attractive proposal? If they search about the proposal on the Google itself will give what is that exactly means but people are still blind to trust someone and hope they will make them rich.

Sad to say that there are people that easy to fool with in terms of money. It's on human nature that there are people that when you talk about money, they're easy to make rapport with and you can hang on them in hours talking about the investment trying to be offered on them.

[Baofeng]

Yep, not new though as this has been ongoing for many years now, but this time, they established call centers to do this job, just like those Amazon, Microsoft and other scams running in one country (I won't mentioned the name). But the good thing is that at least Interpol is really involved in taking down this syndicate who have been scamming unsuspecting victims for years now. And for those who will received some calls, I advised you to just ignore it if you hear bitcoin or crypto investments promising huge returns, those too good to be true scripts.

[Fundamentals Of]

Great job to the authorities of these European countries. They are not only protecting their people from losing their money, they are also protecting the reputation of Bitcoin. This kind of fake investment scheme using the name of Bitcoin is one of the reasons why many people are suspicious with Bitcoin. They associate it with Ponzi or investment scam.

But the sad thing is that registered platforms such as centralized exchanges are also selling fake Bitcoin. Something has to be done with this also.

[Zlantann]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

From time to time we may hear about people who received a phone calls with a very attractive investment proposal. Many of that people accepted the risk and gave their money to scammers. It looks like for some time we will have much less phone calls like that, as many centres has been taken down.

Some details on Europol page: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/call-centres-selling-fake-crypto-taken-down-in-bulgaria-serbia-and-cyprus

(do I understand correctly they inform about the action one year after, or someone made a mistake with a date? publication date is Jan 12th 2023)

The global economic crisis is making people seek alternative sources of income. These scammers offer mouth-watery profits that look irresistible. Greed also motivates people to invest in these fake crypto enterprises. And immediately you invest in these scam schemes, you would keep putting in more funds because you want to make more profit or recover what was lost. They would even ask for money for you to claim a huge profit from the investment. I am sure these dubious firms would keep increasing because most people are not willing to learn about cryptocurrencies but they are just interested in making quick money from the sector.

The solution to this problem is buying only Bitcoin from well-known and reliable crypto firms and shunning cheap and get-rich-quick schemes. Kudos to these law enforcement agencies for bringing down these criminal networks that are giving the crypto space a bad name.

[dkbit98]

Good news from Europol - some call centres selling fake crypto were taken down.

Even scammers are using hardware wallets to avoid getting scammed by others.
I didn't know call centers like this exist in Europe but I recently heard there are many of them in Ukraine and Russia, and it's not going to be that easy to take them down like in the rest of the Europe.
There is also India, one of the biggest countries in the world and I think they are still number one position for tech support scammers.
I would watch out for all advertisements on social media networks, it's best to stop using them or install uBlockOrigin to hide all ads.

[JoyMarsha]

These guys are really annoying. Last time they called me from Warsaw, Poland (perhaps relocated?). I still can't believe how many people are becoming victims of these scam calls. Every time I hear about them in the news, they're reporting MILLIONS in scammed funds. How can people be so gullible? Do some still believe the Nigerian prince's treasure exists?  

Don't be surprised that many people still fall to scammers. Scammers keep trying their luck until they find a victim that will fall for their scam call promise of good returns on investment.

Someone who is not exposed and guided to how they operate will fall victim to their sweet enticing offer. They do sound sweet and legit on the phone which can make even make someone trust them with money if they do not have an idea of their scam

[dansus021]

I don't know about this I'm never received fake crypto selling that direct sell through the phone (little bit old school right, but i don't understand why people still fall to this).

But one what I understand is that the scammer Industry it will never end and never stop because it's profitable. the things what we can do is keep educating ourselves so we don't fall to scammer people