Few victims realised they were being funnelled into one of Europe’s largest investment scams.
The platforms looked polished, customer support teams sounded credible, and online ads featuring familiar public figures appeared legitimate.
By the time investigators connected the threads, the operation had already pulled in more than €700 million and stretched across several countries.
What began as an inquiry into one fraudulent website quickly expanded as authorities uncovered a maze of interconnected platforms promising high returns.
These sites looked legitimate, complete with dashboards showing fabricated profits.
Behind them were teams trained to manipulate victims over the phone, urging repeat deposits while displaying false account growth.
Europol said callers relied on “social engineering tactics” to pressure victims, creating the illusion of success until investors were convinced to send larger sums.
Once deposits landed, funds were scattered through multiple blockchains and exchanges to hide the source.
The investigation’s breakthrough came in two tightly coordinated police actions.
The first phase, on 27 October 2025, involved raids in Cyprus, Germany, and Spain.
Nine suspects were arrested on suspicion of laundering funds from the fake platforms.
Officers seized €800,000 held in bank accounts, €415,000 in cryptocurrencies, €300,000 in cash, along with luxury watches and digital devices.
Europol and Eurojust supported the operation, working with agencies from France, Belgium, Malta, and Cyprus.
A month later, between 25 and 26 November, the second phase shifted focus to the marketing engine that fuelled the fraud.
Teams in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, and Israel targeted companies behind deceptive adverts that impersonated well-known media outlets, public figures, and political leaders.
Many of these ads featured deepfake videos used to lure victims into the fraudulent platforms.
Italian regulators had recently raised alarms about deepfake adverts misusing the image of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, illustrating the scale of the issue.
The fraud network ran an ecosystem of websites that looked polished and trustworthy.
Social media adverts promised quick profits and redirected users to trading portals showing rising balances.
Victims who believed they were making smart investments were instead speaking to call centre agents trained to keep them engaged and depositing more.
The operation was industrial in size, powered by affiliate marketing companies that specialised in high-volume advertising campaigns across Europe.
Investigators described an ecosystem in which call centres, ad networks, fake brokers, and money launderers all worked together.
Once the network collected deposits, the money travelled quickly.
Transfers moved through a web of cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and wallets to obscure every trail.
Europol said the criminals “laundered funds stolen from thousands of victims”, relying on digital anonymity and complex routing strategies that spanned jurisdictions.
Authorities are continuing to track assets in countries where members of the organisation operated and lived.
The crackdown is distinct from two other recent Europol announcements — Operation Matrix, which targeted an encrypted communications service, and the takedown of the Cryptomixer service used by hackers to wash more than €1.3 billion in Bitcoin.
Source: Europol
This week’s case centres solely on fake investment platforms aimed at retail users.
The scale, more than €700 million laundered, places the case among the largest investment fraud operations ever dismantled in Europe.
It also highlights how affiliate marketing and social media advertising have become critical tools for criminal groups, with even reputable ad networks misused to amplify the schemes.
Europol described the two-phase operation as a coordinated strike on the “various pillars” of the fraud industry, signalling that investigators are widening their focus beyond scammers themselves to the infrastructure that enables them.
Authorities in Switzerland and Germany shut down Cryptomixer.io, a service used to launder Bitcoin, seizing servers, data, and over €25 million in crypto. The operation, supported by Europol, aims to stop criminal activity and provide evidence for further investigations.
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