Cyber ​​crime: fraud on online trading platforms is becoming a mass phenomenon

Michael Pientka's message sounds positive at first.

The number of burglaries has been falling for years, which is encouraging, says Pientka, who is the police chief in Braunschweig.

At the same time, however, there is a strong increase in property crimes, especially fraud.

“The acts of crime are being shifted to the Internet.

It is both a crime scene and a means of crime - cyber crime is increasing. "

Marcus Jung

Editor in business.

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What Pientka said this Monday at a press conference on the occasion of the attack against a multinational gang of fraudsters on trading platforms (FAZ October 12) reflects the overall situation well.

In early summer the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) published its “Federal Situation Report Cybercrime 2020”.

Accordingly, the number of crimes rose in the past year by 7.9 percent to 108,000.

"Only a third of cyber crimes can be solved," said the BKA.

Cyber ​​criminals are organized globally and are acting increasingly professionally, which is why the quality of the threat has also increased.

Development of special departments

Prosecutors and the police have themselves upgraded. Pientka says about his Cybercrime commissioner, for example, that IT personnel have been recruited and invested in equipment. Almost all federal states have set up special departments and central offices to combat Internet crimes, the most famous of which are probably located in Frankfurt, Cologne and Bamberg. From there, the Cybercrime Bayern central office reported a coup on Monday afternoon. The prosecutors are bringing charges against a 44-year-old Israeli who is believed to be an accomplice of the "Wolf of Sofia". Behind this pseudonym is Gal Barak, who, according to the Süddeutscher Zeitung, is said to have robbed tens of thousands of investors from all over Europe of their savings on the Internet. The organization “European Funds Recovery Initiative” is assuming damage of 200 million euros.

The promise of “short-term wealth” cannot be kept, warns Niels Nauhauser from the Baden-Württemberg consumer center. "If providers promise to be able to achieve high returns in the short term, it is often fraud, or at least misleading advertising." A very clear stop signal for private investors should be "exorbitant profit promises such as 25 percent per week" on the online platforms . Such returns cannot be achieved with serious investment strategies on the capital market, emphasizes Nauhauser.

In the criminal proceedings in Munich there are allegations of more than 300 cases of commercial and gang fraud.

The damage amounts to 8.7 million euros, according to the prosecution in Bamberg.

The accused, who has been in custody for almost a year after his arrest in Greece and extradition, is said to have transacted transactions at the expense of gullible investors via the trading platforms Safemarkets, OptionStarsGlobal, Cryptopoint and XTraderFX.

These initially opened trading accounts with 250 euros and should then invest more and more money in companies - according to the state of the investigation, they were bogus companies.

Billions in damage for crypto investors

The cases are the same: In Braunschweig, too, the focus is initially on smaller investments in highly speculative contracts for difference (CFD), which are not recommended for inexperienced private investors due to the high risk of default. The estimated damage to European customers of the Fx-Leader trading platform: at least 500 million euros per year. Meanwhile, criminal proceedings relating to the alleged cryptocurrency OneCoin have been running at the Münster Regional Court since September. While its inventor, Bulgarian Ruja I., is still on the run, three intermediaries face long prison sentences. In the search for the next Bitcoin "success story" alone, 60,000 Germans fell for the hoax. Globally, the damage is said to amount to 4 billion euros.

What the detectives say in unison: The server infrastructure is often in the Netherlands, call centers operate from Eastern Europe.

According to public prosecutors, the threads of many frauds come together in Cyprus.

Many trading platforms are registered there, from where the money is forwarded to accounts in offshore destinations or exchanged for crypto currencies.

It is hardly possible for German IT forensic experts to stay on the trail of criminals.

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The foreign operators advertise their products on social networks and use unauthorized celebrities and excerpts from TV shows for themselves. These are all narratives that would serve sales, explains consumer advocate Nauhauser. "Investment fraudsters use every information advantage to their own advantage and do not shy away from attempts at intimidation in order to achieve their goals."

He points out the loopholes that are being exploited by the fraudsters.

Many of the providers are based abroad, often in Cyprus.

"Why is it actually possible that you can then advertise in Germany with profits of up to 25 percent per week?" That is why Nauhauser wants to authorize BaFin to have the Federal Network Agency block these fraudulent websites.

Investors who did not get their money paid by fraudsters should call in the police.

On the other hand, the consumer advocate considers it difficult to enforce one's right against a provider based abroad under civil law - "the chances of success are slim."