"Crime as a service" with call centres in Macedonia too: over 4 million euros in damage, victims in 50 countries

Seven arrests, searches at 17 locations and more than 100 servers seized. That is the tally of an international operation against an online investment-fraud network, in which Macedonia also took part. The damage so far is estimated at over four million euros, and potential victims have been found in at least 50 countries.

The operation was coordinated by Europol and Eurojust and led by the Public Prosecutor's Office in the German town of Itzehoe. Authorities from Germany, Cyprus, Finland, Albania, Israel, Kosovo and Macedonia took part. On the Macedonian side - the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption and the Interior Ministry's unit for combating organised and serious crime. The seven arrested are due to be handed over to Germany.

The model is as old as the internet itself, just better packaged. Platforms promising quick profits from cryptocurrencies, forex and stocks. Fake brokers showing invented gains on the screen. Then constant pressure on the victim to invest more, and more again. According to Europol, behind it all stood a company linked to Cyprus and Israel that supplied the criminal groups with the fake trading websites. Something like renting out the whole scam - "crime as a service".

The part that concerns us most is a different one. Investigators identified clients of that company who ran fraudulent call centres in Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia. These are the people who phoned the victims and talked them into handing over their savings. Europol writes that the personal data of potential victims was collected through fake online ads and then sold to the groups running the call centres.

The investigation began back in 2022, after a German couple reported that they could not withdraw money they had invested through one such platform. Interventions followed in 2022 and 2025, and the evidence from them led investigators to the company in the background. The couple never got their money back, but their complaint is what eventually cracked the whole scheme open.

The Interior Ministry called its participation "yet another confirmation of its active contribution" to the fight against organised crime. Sounds nice. But call centres don't run out of a basement by candlelight - they are offices, employees, phone lines and salaries. How long did they operate here before a German prosecutor noticed them? And how many of the seven arrested are from Macedonia? So far, the press releases don't say.