Together with international authorities and organizations from the police and the judiciary, Baden-Württemberg has succeeded in achieving an incredible blow against a highly professional fraud network. The investigators have prevented damage of around ten million euros in around 6,000 cases.
“Baden-Württemberg’s investigative authorities have successfully uncovered Europe’s largest call center fraud. Together with international authorities and organizations from the police and the judiciary, we have succeeded in scoring an incredible blow against a highly professional fraud network. The investigators have prevented damages of around ten million euros in around 6,000 cases. Loss fraud crimes are particularly deceptive and unconscionable because they play on people’s fears and needs and shake trust and confidence in each other. Police. So we are taking strict and consistent action against these criminals,” said the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. Thomas Strobl am 2. May 2024 in Stuttgart.
Perhaps Europe’s biggest success in the fight against call center fraud
Minister for Justice and Immigration Marion Gentges: “We made the promise that wherever the cyber criminals are sitting in front of their PCs, we will do everything possible to find them. We kept this promise from the start and with a bang. The result of what started as an investigation against unknown perpetrators, this is probably the biggest success in Europe in the fight against call center fraudsters thanks to the combined power and knowledge to law enforcement and IT. With the Establishment of a cybercrime center That’s exactly what we wanted to achieve: comprehensive law enforcement knowledge for the entire country in one place. Less than four months ago we gave the starting signal for the Cybercrime Center and we can now say with a clear conscience: the Baden-Württemberg Cybercrime Center has passed its baptism of fire.
Vigilant bank employees prevent serious damage
The investigation began in December 2023 after the police prevented an attempted fraud with damage that could exceed 100,000 euros through an alert bank employee. The phone numbers of the group of criminals responsible for this quickly played a key role in over ten thousand fraud cases. This was still the case in December 2023 Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office An investigation group was established, which also included police authorities from the federal states of Bavaria, Saxony and Berlin.
Under the leadership of the Baden-Württemberg Cybercrime Center at the Public Prosecutor’s Office Karlsruhe, on April 18, 2024, national and international police and judicial authorities broke a dozen call centers and arrested 20 people with massive and coordinated investigations international. The prosecutors at the Cybercrime Center received about 100 resolutions in this regard. The Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office, together with the Bamberg Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Saxony State Criminal Police Office and local authorities, as well as with the support of Europol and the Federal Criminal Police Office, conducted a simultaneous investigation . apartments and industrial buildings in several Western Balkan countries and Lebanon. The measures were coordinated by a prosecutor from the Cybercrime Center at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague. Three prosecutors led the measures in the Western Balkans. More than 60 officers from the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office, along with cyber experts from regional police headquarters, traveled to the five countries. They received on-site support from national emergency services from the respective countries. In some cases, more than a hundred police officers were deployed at the individual locations.
During the search, the investigators seized extensive evidence such as data carriers, documents, money and assets worth a million euros. An assessment of the evidence is currently underway.
Different types of fraud
In the extensive and complex investigations, experts in economic crime, organized crime and financial investigators, cybercriminals and experts in IT network forensics found call centers in four Western Balkan states and in Lebanon. The fraud variants of the perpetrators covered almost the entire spectrum of known telephone scams: for example, the perpetrators posed as close relatives, bank employees, members of the customer advice center, employees debt collection company or as representatives of authorities, such as the police or public prosecutor’s office, and tried to use threats of punishment, promises of profit, claims of debt collection or prepaid card fraud to deceive the victims their savings.
Track phone calls in real time
The Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office followed the perpetrators’ conversations with potential victims across the country in real time. As of December 2023, more than 100 officers were on duty around the clock in shifts. They received more than 1.3 million conversations for the criminal proceedings. In some cases, detectives followed up to 30 conversations at the same time with the aim of preventing the crimes from being completed and warned victims who were already in crosses – call fraud.
In total, the cybercrime center conducts central investigations on more than 7,500 calls. At the same time, the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office managed to prevent more than eighty percent of the crimes and prevent a total damage of more than ten million euros.
The following national and international police and judicial authorities were involved in the investigation:
- Eurojust
- Europol
- Office of the Attorney General Karlsruhe
- Bamberg Attorney General’s Office
- Freiburg Public Prosecutor’s Office
- Trier public prosecutor’s office
- Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office
- Leipzig public prosecutor’s office
- Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office
- Berlin State Criminal Police Office
- Saxony State Criminal Police Office
- Aalen Police Headquarters
- Freiburg Police Headquarters
- Heilbronn Police Headquarters
- Constance Police Headquarters
- Pforzheim Police Headquarters
- Ludwigsburg Police Headquarters
- Offenburg police headquarters
- Karlsruhe Police Headquarters
- Police Headquarters Operations (Baden-Württemberg)
- Trier police headquarters
- KPI Rosenheim
- Funds of the Federal Criminal Police Office SO31
Albania
- BKA Liaison Officer
- Office of the Special Public Prosecutor to Combat Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK)
- PP Tirana – Cybercrime Department
Bosnia and Herzegovina
- BKA liaison officer
- Sarajevo Public Prosecutor’s Office
- BIH Federal Police (FUP)
Kosovo* [1]
- BKA Liaison Officer
- Office of the Special Prosecutor in the Republic of Kosovo*
- Kosovo Cybercrime Directorate* Police
Lebanon
- BKA liaison officer
- Internal Security Forces (ISF) – National Security Branch
Serbia
- BKA Liaison Officer
- A public prosecutor’s office that specializes in fighting organized crime
- Belgrade Cybercrime Unit
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The cybercrime center was established in January this year and is responsible for law enforcement across the country for high profile cybercrime cases. This is to further develop cooperation between those active in the field of cybersecurity at the state, federal and international levels.
2024-05-02 23:28:13
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