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Searched call center in Georgia: Suspected fraudsters arrested
Photo: Central Office Cybercrime Bavaria
Cyber traders have been arrested in Georgia and Israel for allegedly cheating investors by at least a mid double-digit million amount.
Specialized investigators from the Central Cybercrime Bavaria (ZCB) in Bamberg were also involved in the campaign.
In the two states, 15 properties - including a call center that was still active - were searched and eleven suspected fraudsters were arrested, the police and the ZCB announced on Wednesday.
They are said to belong to the leadership group of a criminal organization.
The searches took place on October 19 in Tbilisi, Georgia, and in the greater Tel Aviv area, but only now became public.
The fraudsters are said to have operated 18 online platforms with names such as "TradeSolid", "MyCoinBanking" or "GetFinancial".
The scam of the alleged fraudsters was similar to the actions of other perpetrators in the flourishing area of cyber trading fraud: Those arrested are said to have advertised on their websites that money can be invested profitably through their services.
The perpetrators are said not to have actually invested the payments made by the investors; instead, they kept them to themselves.
According to the ZCB, different groups of international organized crime have discovered the "lucrative illegal business model" of cyber trading for themselves.
Thousands of victims
One could certainly speak of thousands of victims, said a ZCB spokesman.
They don't just come from German-speaking countries.
"The total damage cannot be reliably estimated at the moment, but it should amount to at least a mid-double-digit million amount," said a statement from the ZCB's cybercrime investigators.
According to investigators, the arrested are four Israeli, six Georgian and one Russian nationals.
Five of them are to be extradited to Germany, the others will probably go to court in Georgia.
hpp / dpa