Germany hunts for cyber criminals amid billion-euro scams
At the start, the job looked like a well-paid role in finance. It ended with a $10,000-a-month drug habit and a cell in a German prison.
That's the story of Tal-Jacki Z.F., who was involved in an online trading fraud and confessed in 2021 to his part in cheating victims in Germany, Austria and other European countries of almost €9 million ($9.8 million).
He was a cog in a machine, helping to set up and operate highly-professional call centers in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, with the aim of fleecing investors through slick online software that mimics the look and feel of legitimate trading.
Online trading fraud is a rapidly growing global problem. In the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that such scams stole $3 billion last year; Equivalent amounts are being harvested in rich European nations. Tackling the gangs is difficult because they work across borders and change the forms of their deceptions frequently to evade detection.
But as the damage has grown and tens of thousands of individuals lost their savings, the law enforcement response is stepping up. As Europe's largest economy, Germany is among the key targets in the region, with prosecutors estimating that some $1 billion a year is being stolen there.
At the heart of these operations are call centers, dubbed “boiler rooms.” They're high-pressure environments where the staff rarely know what they are getting into when they are hired, Tal-Jacki said in an interview from his secure rehabilitation facility not far from the German city of Munich. His face reflects the years of alcohol and drug abuse he says he's been through.
In these types of crimes, members of the public first click on enticing internet ads, which often borrow
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