Scam Europe
Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin. Forex. Bonds. Digital trading is everywhere, and with it are organised crime groups happy to take your money. With investment fraud booming across the continent and AI ratcheting up the ante, authorities struggle to contain the tidal wave of Europe's billion-euro scam business.
September 2025
Last year, online investment fraud cost Europeans an estimated €4 billion. According to some national law enforcement agencies, the rising incidence of financial scams is now outpacing traditional crimes like drugs and firearms trafficking. Now, with the sudden ubiquity of AI, online scam advertisements, deep fake technology and digital trading platforms are accelerating the manipulation of consumers, leading to financial losses and serious data breaches that impact individuals, businesses and public institutions.
Yet the amount of fraudulent ads is overwhelming to those tasked with stopping the crimes: “We do not have the capacity to tackle all the scam ads that come our way, every day. Even when we identify the people behind them, we just don’t have the ability to arrest them” say Irish law enforcement. There is a palpable sense that while the problem is everywhere, the solutions remain elusive.
Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network have teamed up with media partners from across Europe to shed light on some of the actors purportedly behind these crimes, the social media platforms that enable them to flourish and the EU and national regulatory bodies that are struggling to tackle this issue. In the first part of our new investigative series, Scam Europe, we look at the root of some of these scams, exposing an alleged network of individuals connected to a vast financial fraud operation out of call centres in Belgrade, which profited over €250 million and claimed 70,000 victims in Europe, Canada and Australia.
Over the coming weeks, we will reveal some of the ways online financial scams are metastasizing across the continent, highlighting how different European countries are fighting this problem in specific ways. We will show how fraudulent companies create a veneer of legitimacy through advertising and partnership with credible organisations happy to provide a platform for their services. Finally, we hear from victims themselves – who reveal how quickly a harmless-looking investment query can unravel into serious financial losses. We hope you enjoy reading Scam Europe.
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Additional reporting: Nico Schmidt, Pascal Hansens, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Ivana Jeremic, Ana Curic and Svetoslav Todorov.
Coordination: Mei-Ling McNamara and Milorad Ivanovic
Editing: Mei-Ling McNamara, Chris Matthews
Fact-checking: Chris Matthews
Illustration: Spoovio/Georgina Choleva
This investigation is led and coordinated by Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. The Scam Europe series is being published with media partners including Altreconomia, Balkan Insight, EU Observer, The Irish Times, La Libre, Netzpolitik.org, Público and Der Standard.
IJ4EU (Investigative Journalism for Europe) provided funding support for the investigation.
Yet the amount of fraudulent ads is overwhelming to those tasked with stopping the crimes: “We do not have the capacity to tackle all the scam ads that come our way, every day. Even when we identify the people behind them, we just don’t have the ability to arrest them” say Irish law enforcement. There is a palpable sense that while the problem is everywhere, the solutions remain elusive.
Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network have teamed up with media partners from across Europe to shed light on some of the actors purportedly behind these crimes, the social media platforms that enable them to flourish and the EU and national regulatory bodies that are struggling to tackle this issue. In the first part of our new investigative series, Scam Europe, we look at the root of some of these scams, exposing an alleged network of individuals connected to a vast financial fraud operation out of call centres in Belgrade, which profited over €250 million and claimed 70,000 victims in Europe, Canada and Australia.
Over the coming weeks, we will reveal some of the ways online financial scams are metastasizing across the continent, highlighting how different European countries are fighting this problem in specific ways. We will show how fraudulent companies create a veneer of legitimacy through advertising and partnership with credible organisations happy to provide a platform for their services. Finally, we hear from victims themselves – who reveal how quickly a harmless-looking investment query can unravel into serious financial losses. We hope you enjoy reading Scam Europe.
-------
Additional reporting: Nico Schmidt, Pascal Hansens, Aleksandar Djordjevic, Ivana Jeremic, Ana Curic and Svetoslav Todorov.
Coordination: Mei-Ling McNamara and Milorad Ivanovic
Editing: Mei-Ling McNamara, Chris Matthews
Fact-checking: Chris Matthews
Illustration: Spoovio/Georgina Choleva
This investigation is led and coordinated by Investigate Europe and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. The Scam Europe series is being published with media partners including Altreconomia, Balkan Insight, EU Observer, The Irish Times, La Libre, Netzpolitik.org, Público and Der Standard.
IJ4EU (Investigative Journalism for Europe) provided funding support for the investigation.
Publications
Boiler Room: Belgrade Call Centres at Heart of Israeli-Linked Investment Scam
Balkan Insight, Serbia
30 September 2025
Izraelska veza: Beogradski kol-centri i lažne investicije koje su otele stotine miliona evra od žrtava
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Serbia
30 September 2025
Behind the scam: how an alleged criminal network set a trap for thousands of Europeans to fall for ‘fake’ investments and raked in millions
EUobserver, Belgium
30 September 2025
Des milliers personnes, dont 380 en Belgique, piégées par des arnaques aux cryptomonnaies : un couple soupçonné de gérer un empire tentaculaire
La Libre, Belgium
30 September 2025
Die Spur eines Millionenbetrugs
Netzpolitik, Germany
30 September 2025
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Hinter dem Scam: Kriminelles Syndikat raubt tausenden Europäern ihr Erspartes
Der Standard, Austria
30 September 2025