Authorities in seven countries seized more than 100 servers on 3 November 2026 from a company that, investigators say, sold ready-made fake trading platforms to criminal gangs. Seven people were arrested. The possible victims are in more than 50 countries.

Prosecutors in the German city of Itzehoe led the operation, backed by Europol and Eurojust. Authorities from Albania, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Israel, Kosovo and North Macedonia took part. Officers searched 17 sites, including a call centre in Kosovo. Estimated losses top €4m.

Firm supplied fake websites to other gangs

Europol and Eurojust call the model "crime as a service". They say the firm, run from Cyprus and Israel, did not cheat victims directly. Instead, it supplied other criminal groups with fake websites for trading in cryptocurrencies, currencies and shares.

Those clients ran call centres in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Some gangs built the tech, while others made the phone calls and collected the money.

The inquiry began in 2022, when a German family reported that they could not withdraw money from an online platform. A first raid that year led to two arrests. Analysis of the data then revealed seven more suspects, among them call centre managers. A second raid in 2025 led to more arrests and seized assets, and pointed to the supplier of the infrastructure. The action against the firm itself came four years later.

From the ad to blocked withdrawals

Europol and Eurojust say the scheme starts with fake ads that promise quick, big profits. The ads run through affiliate marketing, in which middlemen are paid for every person they bring in. The details of people who sign up are sold to call centres, which then contact them with "investment opportunities".

The victim sends a small sum and sees made-up profits in their account. That makes the site look reliable. The "brokers" then use the figures and psychological pressure to get bigger deposits.

When a person asks for their money back, the operators stall, then stop replying and vanish.

Belgium's financial services watchdog, quoted in an article by an international law firm, describes the same ending in more detail. It says small early withdrawals are sometimes allowed to build trust, while larger ones are blocked with "tax liabilities", fees or a security check. The typical first deposit is about €250.

Europol's tips against crypto scams

Europol's European Cybercrime Centre has drawn up advice on crypto scams together with the European Banking Federation and Spanish banks and police. It lists these signs of a scam:

  • profits that look too good to be true
  • pressure not to miss the chance
  • fake ads online and on social media
  • unsolicited offers by email, on social networks or by phone, sometimes from a "friend", a contact from an app or a fake crypto firm
  • a demand to move your money to another address that the criminals control

The Belgian watchdog adds promises of returns of at least 10% with no risk, pressure to decide at once, and payment to foreign accounts or in cryptocurrency. The authors of the Europol advice warn that a deposit paid in cryptocurrency usually cannot be recovered.

The Belgian example also includes a second stage: after the loss, "money recovery firms" pose as officials or lawyers and ask for new fees.

The names of the seven people arrested have not been released. They are being held for handover or extradition to Germany, where they are expected to stand trial. Two joint investigation teams, one from Germany, Poland and Albania and the other from Albania and Kosovo, are continuing work on the linked cases.