The only purpose of doing scams is to get hold of victims’ money. With the “Follow the Money” approach becoming a well-known investigation tool for the prosecutors, opaqueness, and complexity in structuring the money flow from the victims to the scammers are critical for cybercriminals. The more opaque and
The cooperation of Payvision B.V., a Dutch supervised Payment Service provider, with 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
Around 300 victims from all over Europe, coordinated and supported by EFRI, have been requesting restitution payments for their losses since they learned about the reckless and willful involvement of Payvision in Barak and Lenhoff´s online scams. Legal claims in Austria and Germany are already pending. Additionally, a larger group
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%
ING ´s ESG Committee is to enforce adherence to ESG principles On March 9, 2023 the Dutch ING Groep NV published its annual report for 2022. In this annual report ING Groep NV talks a lot about social responsibility (compare the section: STAYING SAFE AND SECURE) and about the essential
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 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 filed
Over the last decades, the world has witnessed increasingly massive cybercrime attacks across borders. These crimes are very often facilitated by supervised financial entities, crypto exchanges. With the European financial supervisory authorities being very reluctant to take decisive action against payment companies involved in fraud scams, the harm done continues
The phasing out process of PAYVISION ends today (June 30, 2022)! On October 28, 2021, ING announced that it would start phasing out the business activities of its subsidiary PAYVISION as a payment service provider (PSP) and acquirer. According to the announcement, this was done after a thorough evaluation of
EFRI is the abbreviation for European Funds Recovery Initiative. The legal entity behind this Initiative is a not-for-profit organisation (EFRI-Association) registered in Vienna, Austria. Here you can read the statutes of the not-for-profit organization. Read More
