- Operation Heracles took down over 1,400 fraudulent sites luring victims into fake crypto investments
- Scammers used AI to mass produce convincing websites and simulate profitable returns
- Despite the takedowns, no arrests were made; More than 860,000 attempted visits followed the closure.
Recently, police took down more than 1,400 websites that were scamming people out of money. This is stated by the Karlsruhe Prosecutor’s Office (Germany), which announced ‘Operation Heracles’ in a press release.
Operation Heracles was a joint effort carried out by German, Bulgarian and Europol law enforcement officials. The sites were part of a wide network of financial and investment scams that were advertised through social channels.
Victims were invited to register accounts on these websites and “invest,” primarily in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency scams are reaching all-time highs as the deregulated environment is ripe for threat actors, so it is important to be careful.
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They were then shown their balance and tricked into believing they were generating significant returns. They were also allowed to withdraw small amounts of money, a trick to make them believe the sites were legitimate and deposit even more. When victims attempted to withdraw most (or all) of their funds, they were first told that they needed to deposit even more money to pay different withdrawal fees or taxes.
If even then they didn’t realize what was happening and again tried to withdraw their funds, the sites would go offline.
Birgit Rodolphe, BaFin’s executive director of anti-money laundering and processing, said fraudsters used artificial intelligence to create websites “like on an assembly line.”
Apparently, the scam was quite widespread and also successful. Since the sites were shut down and defaced on October 3, there have been over 860,000 attempted visits, showing just how popular these fake trading platforms were.
We don’t know exactly how many people were scammed into “investing” or how much money was lost this way. Unfortunately, no one was arrested as part of this operation, so it is safe to assume that the bad actors will return to their usual activities sooner or later.
If you are looking to invest, make sure you check the platforms you are using and do not trust recommendations made on Telegram and other social platforms without proper verifications.
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