Austria and Albania dismantle alleged €50 million crypto investment fraud ring

A joint operation by Austrian and Albanian authorities has dismantled an alleged cryptocurrency investment fraud network accused of causing at least €50 million in losses to victims worldwide. The action, supported by Europol and Eurojust, led to the arrest of 10 suspects and searches of three call centers and nine private residences on April 17.

Investigators began the case in Vienna in June 2023 and traced the scheme across multiple countries. During the April action, officers seized €891,735 in cash, 443 computers, 238 mobile phones, six laptops, and various data storage devices for forensic examination.

Europol said the group operated like a legitimate business, with up to 450 employees split across departments such as customer acquisition, retention, finance, IT, and human resources. Team leaders oversaw daily activities, while call center managers coordinated operations.

Operators, organized in language teams of six to eight (including German, English, Italian, Greek, and Spanish), were paid around €800 a month plus performance-based commissions. According to Europol, victims were directed to bogus cryptocurrency investment platforms via ads on search engines and social media.

They were then assigned “retention agents” posing as brokers and investment advisors, who managed clients’ accounts, sometimes using remote access software to control their devices and pressuring them into making additional deposits. The money was not invested but allegedly funneled through an international money-laundering scheme into accounts controlled by the network.

In a secondary phase, the perpetrators allegedly contacted victims again, offering to recover lost funds in exchange for an entry fee of €500 deposited into cryptocurrency accounts—defrauding them a second time. The investigation identified victims in Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The takedown adds to a series of European crackdowns on large-scale investment fraud. In March 2022, authorities shut down a major call-center network employing around 200 “traders” that stole at least €3 million per month, and last year police dismantled multiple call centers across Europe linked to multimillion-euro losses in so-called “pig butchering” scams.

The current investigation continues as authorities analyze the seized devices and follow the money trail.