(Bloomberg) — At the start, the job looked like a well-paid role in finance. It ended with a $10,000-a-month drug habit and a cell in a German prison.
Most Read from Bloomberg
That’s the story of Tal-Jacki Z.F., who was involved in an online trading fraud and confessed in 2021 to his part in cheating victims in Germany, Austria and other European countries of almost €9 million ($9.8 million).
He was a cog in a machine, helping to set up and operate highly-professional call centers in Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, with the aim of fleecing investors through slick online software that mimics the look and feel of legitimate trading.
Online trading fraud is a rapidly growing global problem. In the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that such scams stole $3 billion last year; Equivalent amounts are being harvested in rich European nations. Tackling the gangs is difficult because they work across borders and change the forms of their deceptions…
2023-08-19 01:30:00
Link from finance.yahoo.com
rnrn