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Over 1,400 websites taken offline in German police's 'Operation Heracles'

Date:
Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:46:00 +0000

Description:
The sites were scamming people out of their money by engaging them in fake
investments.

FULL STORY

The police recently took down more than 1,400 websites that were scamming
people out of their money. This is according to the Karlsruhe (Germany) 
Public Prosecutors Office, who announced Operation Heracles in a press
release. 

Operation Heracles was a joint effort conducted by German, Bulgarian, and
Europol law enforcement agents. The sites were part of a wide network of
financial and investment scams that were being advertised via social 
channels. 

Victims were invited to register accounts on these websites and invest -
mostly in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency scams are reaching all time highs 
, as the deregulated environment is ripe for threat actors - so it's 
important to be careful.

Fake news 

They were then shown their balance, and tricked into believing they were
generating significant returns. They were also allowed to withdraw small
amounts of money - a trick to have them believe the sites were legitimate, 
and to get them to deposit even more. When victims tried to withdraw most (or
all) of their funds, they would first be told that they needed to deposit 
even more money, to pay for different withdrawal fees or taxes. 

If even then they didn't realize what was going on, and again tried to
withdraw their funds, the sites would go offline. 

Birgit Rodolphe, BaFin Executive Director of Processing and Money Laundering
Prevention, said the scammers used artificial intelligence to create websites
like on an assembly line. 

The scam was quite widespread and successful too, it seems. Since the sites
were taken down and defaced on October 3, there were more than 860,000 visit
attempts, showing just how popular these fake trading platforms were. 

We dont know exactly how many people were scammed into investing, or how much
money was lost this way. Sadly, no one was arrested as part of this 
operation, so its safe to assume that the miscreants will be back to their
usual activities sooner or later. 

If youre looking to invest, make sure to double-check the platforms youre
using, and dont trust recommendations made on Telegram and other social
platforms without proper verifications. 

 Via Cybernews 

======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/over-1-400-websites-taken-offline-in-ge
rman-polices-operation-heracles

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