“Authorities across Europe took down a massive crypto fraud and laundering network tied to fake investment platforms, deepfake ads and call-center operations.”, — write: www.coindesk.com
The criminal group ran a slew of fake crypto-trading platforms that promised high returns through slick marketing campaigns, Europol announced on Thursday.
Victims, drawn in by “sophisticated” ads, were funneled into call centers where operators used social-engineering tactics to coax further deposits. Once funds were transferred, they were siphoned away and laundered through a maze of blockchains and exchanges.
The first wave of action on Oct. 27 saw coordinated raids in Cyprus, Germany and Spain, resulting in nine arrests and the seizure of bank funds, crypto assets, cash, electronics and luxury goods. A second sweep on Nov. 25-26 targeted the affiliate-marketing infrastructure that fed the scheme, disrupting the companies behind fraudulent ad campaigns and data-harvesting operations used to identify potential victims.
Investigators say the scheme evolved far beyond a single scam site, operating multiple fraudulent platforms supported by sophisticated financial and advertising infrastructure. With arrests made and key servers seized, authorities will continue tracing assets linked to the network across Europe and beyond.
The operation underscores how crypto-investment scams have scaled — and how deeply they depend on cross-border laundering, data exploitation and deceptive marketing to function.
Europol’s announcement of the bust comes only days after the law-enforcement agency revealed the takedown of a crypto-mixing service alleged to have laundered more than $1.51 billion in bitcoin BTC$89,356.01.
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence’s Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025, with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch, the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B, while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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The bank is owned by billionaire Andy Beal, a major supporter of US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
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