An organized crime group of 12 people has been detained after a joint mission by Eurojust and Europol, Romanian and Moldovan authorities. Since 2022, the group had scammed more than 150 victims by selling a non-existent investment scheme to them, and through that get hold of their bank accounts. The scammers are believed to have extracted around €3m ($3.3m) from the victims.

The group promoted an investment plan where investors would get “secure, quick and substantial earnings in virtual currencies” in online advertisements.

They also added pictures of well-known people, logos of banks and specialized economic publications to the advertisements to make them seem more legitimate.

Fake investment platform

Those who clicked on the faulty ads were led to a fake investment platform, where the victims had to fill in their personal information. Then, the scammers posed as people within the financial industry to obtain even more personal data, and called their victims to get access to their bank accounts – and steal a combined total of about €3m ($3.3m).

The investigations started after victims in Romania contacted the authorities, who later uncovered an organized crime group in Moldova as responsible for the scam.

The joint investigation led to a coordinated action on August 7 in which 19 houses were searched in Moldova. Evidence such as computers, data storage units, weapons and ammunition, and documents was seized.

The operation was a joint mission with Eurojust, Europol, Directorate for Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism – Central Structure in Romania, and the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases in Moldova.