Ukrainian Police Shut Down 94 Fraudulent Call Centers in Nationwide Sweep
Ukraine’s National Police, working alongside the country’s Security Service, the Prosecutor General’s Office and German police, shut down 94 fraudulent call centers operating across the country this week following an investigation that involved 411 searches. The call centers’ operators posed as bank officials, brokers and law enforcement officers to defraud victims, primarily by luring them onto fake investment platforms or convincing them their bank accounts were at risk.
According to police, common tactics included calling victims under the pretense of detecting suspicious transactions and threatening to freeze their accounts unless a payment was made, as well as persuading targets to take out loans, share payment card details, or install remote-access software on their devices. Investigators said some victims who had already lost money to scams were later contacted again by callers falsely promising to help recover the funds, only to be defrauded a second time. Many of the operations specifically targeted residents of European Union countries.
The raids yielded a substantial haul of equipment and assets, including nearly 1,800 workstations, more than 3,300 pieces of computer hardware, 1,346 phones, 5,200 SIM cards, access credentials for 20 cryptocurrency wallets, 22 vehicles, roughly $2 million and €64,000 in cash, and a kilogram of gold bars and jewelry. Twenty-six individuals have been formally notified that they are suspects, and police say forensic analysis of the seized equipment is ongoing and expected to help identify victims and additional participants in the scheme, including money mules and launderers. Suspects face charges under Ukraine’s criminal code carrying penalties of up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of property.