Are you planning to trade in online related digital assets , well you might think twice as chances are you might fall in scammers lap where fake traders exploit retail traders who are seeking quick gains amid volatile crypto and stock markets.

According to sources 1400 illegal online trading domains/ websites operating out of Eastern Europe and Germany, marking one of the largest coordinated crackdowns on cyber-trading fraud in the region. “Operation Heracles,” name given took offline 1,406 active illegal domains in cooperation with the European police authority Europol and Bulgarian law enforcement authorities. German investigators and banking watchdog BaFin decided to shut down these websites after the Cyber-trading fraud came to light.

Modus Operandi by Scammers

Firstly users were lured with good returns and sophisticated online ads and social media campaigns before being connected to brokers working from call centers abroad. The shuttered websites displayed huge returns and exciting offers and convinced victims to invest substantial sums, often promising high returns through forex, crypt, or stock trading.

The scammers open fake trading platforms without a license from the BaFin and use call centers to encourage victims to invest money in the scheme.

The scammers posed as international agency but deliberately targeted the German market and people residing in Germany. Since the affected websites were redirected on October 3, authorities have recorded around 866,000 hits on the seized pages, showing the scale of the issue.

The site’s users were directed to brokers operating from overseas call centers, who then persuaded them to invest large amounts of funds. Many victims just realized after months that their money had never actually been invested, authorities said.

“The perpetrators are getting more professional,” said Birgit Rodolphe from BaFin. They use artificial intelligence to create mass illegal sites and trap investors to invest money.

(Sources: German authorities nix 1,400 websites used for cybertrading fraud | Reuters)

The operation follows the closure of 800 illegal domains in June this year. Since then, there have been around 20 million attempts to access the sites that have been blocked.

The Alarming Rise of Online Cyber-fraud

The digital world offers incredible opportunities for earning within short time and scammers are lurking every where while harboring sinister plan reminding of stark dangers.

This incident serves as a crucial warning to anyone considering online investments

Here are few important guidelines to protect yourself from similar trading fraud:

• If you get unrealistic promises of high returns There is certainly a scam with unrealistic returns. All legitimate investments carry some degree of risk.
• Be extremely wary of unexpected calls, messages, or emails from individuals or groups promoting investment opportunities.
• Scammers will use tactics creating a sense of urgency, urging to invest quickly and avoid getting you to scan whole documents or contracts etc.
• Keep verifying any legitimacy of any trading application or website, if they have regulatory licenses or watch for any sign of unprofessionalism.
• Watch if they send requests for transfers to Personal Accounts. Any legitimate investment firms will never ask you to transfer money into personal bank accounts. All transactions should go through official, regulated channels.
• Fraudsters often impersonate famous financial institutions or advisors and its important one should always cross-reference their claims.

It is important that you report the issue to the police ASAP. You will need a crime number from the police to help you work with your bank and other organizations.

Approaches to dealing with cybercrime-related financial loss

How you can try and get your money back very much depends on how the money was stolen. Here we are going to focus on four different approaches:

1) Authorised payments (where you were tricked into making a payment),

2) Unauthorised payments (where the criminal actually carried out the payment using your accounts),

3) ID fraud (where you have been impersonated with a financial organisation) and

4) card fraud (where they money was transferred by a credit or debit card payment).