- Operation Heracles dismantled 1,400+ scam sites that lured victims into fake crypto investments
- Fraudsters used artificial intelligence to mass-produce convincing websites and simulate profitable returns
- Despite takedowns, no arrests were made; over 860,000 visit attempts followed the closure
Police have recently taken down more than 1,400 websites that are scamming people out of their money. This is according to the public prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe (Germany), which announced ‘Operation Heracles’ in a press release.
Operation Heracles was a joint effort by German, Bulgarian and Europol law enforcement agents. The websites were part of a wide network of financial and investment scams advertised via social channels.
Victims were invited to register accounts on these sites and “invest” – mostly in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency fraud is reaching all-time highs as the deregulated environment is ripe for threat actors – so it’s important to be cautious.
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They were then shown their balance sheets and tricked into thinking they were generating significant returns. They were also allowed to withdraw small amounts – a ploy to make them believe the sites were legitimate and to get them to deposit even more. When victims tried to withdraw most (or all) of their money, they were first told that they would have to deposit even more money to pay for various withdrawal fees or taxes.
Even then, if they didn’t realize what was going on and tried to withdraw their money again, the sites would go offline.
Birgit Rodolphe, BaFin’s managing director for the treatment and prevention of money laundering, said the fraudsters used artificial intelligence to create websites “like on an assembly line”.
The scam was also quite widespread and successful, it seems. Since the sites were taken down and destroyed on October 3, there were more than 860,000 attempted visits, which shows how popular these fake trading platforms were.
We don’t know exactly how many people were tricked into “investing” or how much money was lost this way. Unfortunately, no one was arrested as part of this operation, so it’s safe to assume that the criminals will be back to their usual activities sooner or later.
If you want to invest, make sure you double check the platforms you use and don’t rely on recommendations from Telegram and other social platforms without proper verifications.
Via Cyber news
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