How Deepfakes and Call Centers Powered a €700M Crypto Scam
How Did a Single Scam Uncover a €700 Million Criminal Network?
International authorities have taken down a crypto fraud and money-laundering operation that moved more than €700 million across multiple platforms and blockchains, Europol said on Thursday. What began as an investigation into one fraudulent investment site expanded into a sprawling case involving fake trading dashboards, aggressive call center scripts and a laundering system designed to hide digital flows across jurisdictions.
According to Europol, ahead leads revealed a network of bogus crypto investment platforms backed by call centers that pressured victims to deposit additional funds. Operators displayed fabricated returns to keep victims sending money. Once deposits landed, the group moved the funds through a chain of wallets, mixers and platforms, making recovery hard and obscuring ownership trails across several blockchains.
As investigators followed the transactions, the web widened into a cluster of interconnected sites and laundering entities spanning Europe and other regions. Europol described the fraud as one of the more extensive cases involving fake laundering infrastructure.
Investor Takeaway
What Happened in the First Phase of Raids?
On Oct. 27, authorities in Cyprus, Germany and Spain carried out coordinated raids at the request of French and Belgian prosecutors. Nine suspects were detained on charges linked to laundering funds from the fraudulent platforms. Police seized €800,000 in bank accounts, €415,000 in crypto, €300,000 in cash, along with digital devices and high-value watches.
Europol and Eurojust supported the cross-border operation, working with national agencies from France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Malta and Cyprus. Officials said the first wave targeted the actors directly involved in moving stolen funds through platforms and financial channels set up to conceal origins.
Why Were Deepfake Ads and Affiliate Marketing Networks Targeted Next?
The second phase of the operation took place on Nov. 25 and Nov. 26, focusing on the affiliate marketing networks that drove traffic into the scam ecosystem. Authorities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and Israel searched companies and individuals tied to online advertising campaigns that impersonated major media outlets, celebrities and politicians. Many of the promotions relied on deepfake videos, which assisted funnel victims toward the fake trading platforms.
This phase targeted the “front door” of the operation — the machinery that generated new victims through manipulated adverts rather than traditional phishing. Europol said the raids were aimed at disabling the infrastructure that sustained the criminal network’s flow of new users.
Investor Takeaway
What Comes Next for Authorities Tracking the Group’s Assets?
Europol said the combined actions “represent a coordinated strike against the various pillars of the online crypto fraud industry.” Officials added that investigations will continue across the countries where the organization operated, including efforts to trace residual assets and identify further nodes in the laundering chain.
The have grown into industrial-scale operations built on call centers, AI-generated promotional material and complex multi-chain flows. Authorities said the coordination between police, financial intelligence units and cybersecurity teams was key to identifying connections that initially appeared unrelated.
As more jurisdictions treat as an organized financial crime rather than isolated incidents, similar multi-country actions are likely. The scale of this case also reflects a wider trend: once funds enter networks designed to obscure movement across blockchains, tracing them requires months of cross-border investigative work.
