EFRI organises fund recovery as a structured membership programme. We build big data pools on scams, involve regulators and prosecutors, and work to recover funds for defrauded consumers.
By joining EFRI, you become part of a coordinated effort to hold fraudsters – and the payment providers who enable them – accountable.
How we work with victims
For each scam, EFRI:
sets up dedicated social-media groups for victims,
guides them on which authorities to contact and how to approach them once the fraud is discovered, and
asks every victim to file a criminal complaint with the police in their country of residence and to follow up consistently.
We also ask victims to provide:
full deposit and transfer details for all payments made to the fraudsters, and
any other evidence they have gathered about the fraudulent scheme.
This documentation is the starting point for our data work.
Building big-data pools on scams
Using the victims’ documentation, EFRI builds a data pool for each scam that:
maps the involvement of both unlicensed and licensed payment service providers and banks, and
identifies, in the case of card payments, the acquirer (acquiring institution) that processed the transactions.
These data pools are the backbone of our complaints to regulators and prosecutors
Money-laundering complaints against banks and payment service providers
Based on these data pools, EFRI prepares money-laundering complaints against involved banks and both legal and illegal payment service providers.
To date, EFRI has filed money-laundering complaints with a total victim volume exceeding €15 million.
We have filed complaints against German banks and payment service providers such as Payvision, Wirecard and Deutsche Bank, as well as against KBH Andelskasse and UPC Consulting, with the respective regulators and public prosecution authorities (e.g. BaFin, FCA and others).
Regulators such as BaFin and the FCA are now very familiar with EFRI’s letters – and increasingly uncomfortable recognising our letterhead.
More often than not, even regulated payment processors such as Wirecard, Payvision or Deutsche Bank did not terminate their business relationships with scammers, despite repeated public investor warnings from financial market supervisory authorities in various jurisdictions.
In addition, many unauthorised and illegal payment processors – such as B2G, Xtrabit, P2P, Hermes Solution, IntellEstate Bau, and many more – have made themselves available for fraud processing in exchange for substantial fees. These entities must also be held accountable for the losses of retail investors.
Support European prosecutors with data against fraud.
Based on the information provided by victims, EFRI also:
files criminal complaints against identified fraudsters (for example in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Israel), and
pushes prosecutors in different European countries to start or expand investigations.
We do this by:
delivering all collected information on criminal complaints filed in other European countries (to facilitate cross-border information exchange), and
providing structured databases about the fraud and the financial flows involved.
This is not the fast lane. It is a holistic approach that aims both at the recovery of funds and at the punishment of dishonest actors. At the very least, it documents the reality of the financial scene for the competent authorities and ensures that the “black sheep” are identified, checked and – eventually – punished.
Want to join us?
If you are a cybercrime victim and want to join us, pls read our EFRI membership agreement (EFRI Beitrittserklärung). In case of any questions, we are prepared to answer them. If you have no questions pls sign it and send it to [email protected], we will get in touch with you.