A massive global cryptocurrency scam has claimed 17,000 lives in Spain alone.
Mercè, 80 years old and resident of Puigcerdà in the Catalan department of Girona, lost 800,000 euros in a scam related to cryptocurrency. The old woman first responded to a Whatsapp message from a Graison. The latter, pretending to be a financial advisor, would stay in contact with the octogenarian for four years to steal 500,000 euros from him to invest in crypto-currencies.
As time passed, the victim’s suspicions about the true identity of his alleged adviser were awakened. He demanded the recovery of the amount. After Mercè was led to believe that his financial adviser had died, the phone scammers still managed to get an additional 300,000 euros from him. This time they pretended to be a law firm commissioned by a group of victims to recover the amount invested.
A global scam
Mercè finally filed a complaint with the Mossos d’Esquadra de Puigcerdà police station, triggering one of the most complex investigations of financial frauds related to cryptocurrencies in Europe. Investigators will see that Mercé’s case is not isolated. An organization on an almost industrial scale, directed from Albania by an adviser to the current Minister of Defense, defrauded 17,000 victims in Spain alone.
This mafia, in order to get its victims, has opened many fake websites in the field of cryptocurrency, pushing the vice to the point of sponsoring the Seville football team, with the name of a fake company. Everfxprinted on the players’ shorts.
The criminal organization opened several call centers located in Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Macedonia and Ukraine where hundreds of fake financial advisers manipulated victims, leading them to invest all their savings in nothing. ‘y products. In total, after police actions carried out in these countries, 15 call centers were dismantled and important equipment was seized, including 355 computers, mobile phones, tablets and other electronics which contains information on individuals.