- Investors fall for fraudulent brokers
In the search for lucrative investments, a man and a woman from Rostock fell victim to online scammers and lost a significant amount of money. According to police, the woman invested all her savings, amounting to several hundred thousand euros, in a supposed serious fixed-term deposit offer in mid-July. She had been advised over the phone and by email about investment opportunities and, believing it to be legitimate, transferred the money as agreed.
It later transpired that the supposed investment advisor had fraudulently used the data of an existing company in the financial sector. The victim only discovered this when the access details she had been sent did not work, and the banks involved confirmed that no accounts had been opened.
The man's attempt to boost his account by trading in cryptocurrencies also ended in substantial losses, according to the police. He had registered on an online platform advertising such services in May and was immediately contacted. Together with the supposed expert, he invested over 100,000 euros of his savings by early August. However, when the day came for the promised profits to be paid out, contact with the supposed advisor suddenly ceased, and the victim realized he had been defrauded. He then filed a complaint the previous week.
In both cases, the criminal police have initiated investigations on suspicion of investment fraud and have warned against falling for dubious offers. "Before making an investment, consult your local bank or the consumer advice center," the officers advise.
Despite their best efforts to secure profitable investments, they unwittingly invested in dubious schemes. The man in cryptocurrencies and the woman in a fixed-term deposit, both suffered significant losses and realized they had fallen for other people's deceitful schemes.
