Cybercrime Archives - EFRI identifies financial crime enablers to curb cyberfraud

Warning: Fake “EFRI Restitution Department” Emails Claim Seized Crypto Assets and Request ID Documents

Warning: Fake “EFRI Restitution Department” Emails Claim Seized Crypto Assets and Request ID Documents Fraudsters are again impersonating EFRI. German-language emails are circulating from [email protected], signed “Elfriede Sixt, Principal – Restitution & Case Management”. They are fake. The domain does not belong to EFRI, and EFRI has no “Restitution Department”.

17 September 2026 No Comments

The “Just the Rails” Defence: What the Zelle Fraud Case Means for Wero and Europe

The “Just the Rails” Defence: What the Zelle Fraud Case Means for Wero and Europe On 20 July 2026, the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County refused to dismiss the New York Attorney General’s fraud action against Early Warning Services, LLC (EWS), the operator of

10 September 2026 No Comments

Money Moves in Seconds. Europe’s Evidence Requests Move in Months — If They Are Sent at All

Money Moves in Seconds. Europe’s Fraud Framework Is Too Slow to Obtain Financial Evidence — And Too Weak on What Must Follow The EU is improving bank-account discovery, fraud monitoring and information sharing. Three EFRI case files show the two gaps that remain: authorities still lack a sufficiently fast and

3 September 2026 No Comments

A Duty Without a Remedy: Austria Is About to Import Germany’s Payment-Blocking Model — Including the Part That Does Not Work

Austria Builds a Stronger Payment-Blocking Regime — but Repeats Germany’s Blind Spot Government Bill 594 d.B., XXVIII. GP (amendments to the Glücksspielgesetz and the Telekommunikationsgesetz 2021); introduced in the Nationalrat on 5 August 2026. The new § 56e GSpG enters into force at the end of 31 December 2026. EFRI

26 August 2026 No Comments

Banking Circle’s vIBAN Model in Practice: Kraken, Bano and the Look-Through Problem

Banking Circle’s vIBAN Model in Practice: Kraken, Bano and the Look-Through Problem EFRI has repeatedly argued that the principal risk of virtual IBAN structures is not the IBAN itself. It is the separation between the bank whose name appears in the payment chain, the regulated intermediary that is the bank’s

17 August 2026 No Comments

A €314,000 Pass-Through at a DNB-Licensed EMI: The FINOM/Banking Circle/ Triventa Account

FINOM/Banking Circle/Triventa: a €314k pass-through at a DNB-licensed EMI A fact-based EFRI Case Note built on the FINOM account statement, Companies House filings, Banking Circle’s Article 15 GDPR response, the DNB register and public-register publications, a Sumsub onboarding report, correspondence, a Kifid decision and published Dutch judgments. It makes no

17 August 2026 No Comments

FCA’s “modernised” redress system: a reform for efficiency, or a new filter against consumers?

The UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service have launched CP26/9, “Modernising the Redress System”, presenting it as a package designed to improve predictability, transparency and early intervention in consumer redress. The FCA says the aim is to create a smoother system for consumers while giving firms greater

21 April 2026 No Comments

Why the UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 Won’t Be Enough to Stop Online Fraud

The UK’s new Fraud Strategy 2026–2029 is an important and overdue step – but on its current design it is unlikely to stop global scam networks on its own. From EFRI’s perspective, the core missing piece is a hard, enforceable “primary gatekeeper” regime for payment service providers and major online

11 March 2026 No Comments

Uniswap Case: Why the Judgment Does Not Give DeFi Blanket Immunity

Crypto coverage is already treating the Uniswap dismissal as another big win for the sector. That reaction is understandable, but it overreads the judgment. On 2 March 2026, Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the Second Amended Complaint with prejudice in the class action Risley v. Universal Navigation Inc. Yet the

9 March 2026 No Comments

CJEU Case C-70/25: Advocate General Says Banks Must Refund Phishing Victims Immediately

On 5 March 2026, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos delivered his Opinion in Case C-70/25, Tukowiecka, a case that could become highly important for victims of online banking fraud across the European Union. According to the Court of Justice press release, the Advocate General’s position is clear: a bank cannot refuse

6 March 2026 1 Comment