EFRI establishes big data pools - and involves regulators and prosecutors to recover funds for defrauded consumers
EFRI organises fund-recovery as a structured membership programme. We create dedicated social-media groups for victims of each scam and guide them on which authorities to contact and how to approach them once the fraud is discovered. We ask 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 any payments made to the fraudsters, together with any evidence they have gathered about the fraudulent scheme.
Using this documentation, EFRI builds a data pool for each scam that maps the involvement of both unlicensed and licensed payment service providers and banks. For card payments, we work to identify the acquirer (acquiring institution) that processed the transactions
Money Laundering complaints against European banks and payment service providers
EFRI establishes data pools for each scam involving illegal and legal payment service providers and banks based on the documentation provided. Regarding credit or debit card payments, we attempt to identify the acquiring organisation that processed the victims’ transactions. EFRI prepares money laundering complaints against the involved banks and legal and illegal payment service providers based on these databases.
To date, EFRI has filed money laundering complaints with a total volume exceeding €15 million. EFRI filed money laundering complaints against German banks and payment service providers, such as Wirecard ande Bank. Additionally, we filed money laundering complaints against KBH Andelskasse and UPC Consulting with the respective regulators and public prosecution authorities, such as BaFin or the FCA. For example, BaFin or the FCA is now quite familiar with EFRI’s letters and is already uncomfortable recognisingthe letterhead.
More often than not, even regulated payment processors such as Wirecard, Payvision, or Deutsche Bank did not terminate their business relations with the scammers. However, various jurisdictions’ financial market supervisory authorities have issued many public investor warnings.
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, too, must be held accountable and responsible for the losses of retail investors.
Support European prosecutors with data against fraud.
Based on the victims’ information about the fraud, we filed criminal complaints against the identified fraudsters, including one in Denmark, several in the United Kingdom, and Israel. In addition, we try to push prosecutors in different European countries to start investigations by delivering all collected information on criminal complaints in other European countries (to help them exchange information) and providing databases about the fraud.
It is certainly not the fast lane, but rather a holistic approach that hopefully will result in the recovery of funds and the punishment of dishonest actors. In any case, this approach documents the state of the financial scene for the authorities involved and leads to the black sheep being checked and punished.
In summary, we are convinced that the involvement of competent authorities in the fund recovery process is ultimately beneficial for both aggrieved retail investors and the security of the online investment scene. The European payment processors must understand that they will be held accountable for their involvement in any scams. We are convinced that this is the only method to stop this kind of fraud in Europe.