Scam Empire: Cyprus Served as a Hub in Alleged Fraud Ring
CIRen
An investigation into leaked data exposes scam call centers whose employees convinced thousands of people to make “investments” on fake trading platforms. A call center in Cyprus was part of an operation based in Israel that appears to have targeted 26,810 individuals around the world.
“They took everything from me,” said a Spanish architect in her 40s, one of 26,810 people targeted by an organized network selling investment opportunities to individuals around the globe. The operation is estimated to have netted at least €230 million between 2021 and 2024.
Choosing to publicly use only her initials, IGP confirmed to reporters that she “invested” €400,000 – mostly money from selling the land she inherited from her mother. She lost her life savings within a month to what she acknowledges was an intricate scam.
The network operated mainly from Cyprus, Israel, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Spain and North Macedonia, targeting would-be investors from call centers, and convincing them to make more and more deposits. IGP thought she was watching her investments in crypto grow on a trading platform she now believes was fake.
More than half a million leaked internal documents and communications from the vast operation to allegedly scam thousands of victims were shared with media partners in dozens of countries, including the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network (CIReN). Until last year, the network appears to have had a “Cyprus HQ,” and a call centre in Limassol.
No Cypriots appear to have been targeted – most victims were located in Canada, UK, South Africa, and Western Europe.
Scam Empire is a collaborative investigation by OCCRP, Swedish Television (SVT), and 30 other media partners from multiple countries. Based on 1.9 terabytes of
