The primary purpose of scams is to obtain victims’ money. With the “Follow the Money” approach becoming a well-known investigative tool for prosecutors, opaqueness and complexity in structuring the money flow from victims to scammers are critical for cybercriminals. The more opaque and complex a payment method is, the more
The cooperation between Payvision B.V., a Dutch-supervised payment service provider, and the cybercriminals Gal Barak, Uwe Lenhoff, and his accomplices (Gery Shalon, Vlad Smirnov, and others) began in 2013. The cooperation ended at the end of January 2019 with the arrest of Gal Barak and Uwe Lenhoff. When reading the
Mercuryo’s SLAPP against EFRI As of 24 April 2023, the mercuryo group initiated a SLAPP – Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation – against EFRI and its board members for defamation reasons. The Austrian lawyer BINDER GRÖSSWANG represented them in court. The request for a preliminary injunction pertains to a table
Letters sent out with a strictly confidential clause always tend to be interesting for many more people than the addressees. Last night, some Barak and Lenhoff victims represented by EFRI presumably received a refund offer from ING! As there are thousands of ING victims out there (a total of more
Graham Barrow has been highlighting the misuse of the UK Companies House for years now. Today, he announced on LinkedIn that as of yesterday, 18 April 2023, 11,069,109 companies are registered with the UK Companies House Register. Out of these 11 million registered entities, only 5,227,447 are active. Founded in
Why are acquirers to be held accountable for illegal activities The digitalization pushed by governments worldwide and praised for its benefits in efficiency and productivity comes with high risks for consumers. Online fraud is by now the most commonly experienced crime. In England and Wales, fraud accounts for approximately 41%
As of March 23, 2023, the European Court of Justice published its judgment in the case GAL BARAK against the Bamberg public prosecutor´s office (Case C-365/2). The court ruled in favor of the German authority. In addition, the European court provided the German court with elements of interpretation of EU
As of 8 October 2020, an investigation report submitted by the Dutch Supervisory Authority (DNB) to the management of Payvision B.V. – a licensed Dutch payment institution in Amsterdam, owned by one of the biggest banks in Europe, ING – stated that an on-site audit carried out by DNB
EFRI`s open letter to the European Authorities in charge of anti-money laundering. Based on our findings of the activities of some European licensed Payment Institutions and e-money institutions in the online fraud industry (in specific Payvision B.V., Wirecard Bank AG, Moneynet Int LTD) we formulated some recommendations and established an
EFRI always was convinced that payment companies like Payvision B.V. or Wirecard willingly and knowingly process illegal transactions for cybercriminals are to be held accountable. The European supervisory authorities massively fail to do this job. So victims have to go legally against the fraud-enabling payment processors. EFRI supports victims that
