In recent weeks, we have focused our investigations and reports on the fraudulent marketing campaigns that scammers and regulated CySEC investment firms use to hunt for new victims. We have started our “Marketing Campaigns Blacklist” in this regard. A few days ago, the German BaFin announced to have started investigations against the operators of the Bitcoin Code Campaign. Well, it’s at least a start. Regulators and law enforcement agencies need to take much stronger action against the operators of these fraud campaigns.
According to BaFin, the operators of the Bitcoin Code campaign are not only violating laws. In the very essence, they would be offering financial services illegally in Germany via “using constantly changing Internet addresses (URLs), which customers pass on to various platforms.” In doing so, the campaign operators (a/k/a fraudsters) would misleadingly present their business activities in fake press articles and abusing German public figures as references. As a matter of fact, a lot of those fraud campaigns focus on German-speaking investors.
The Bitcoin Code campaign has promoted, among others, the broker Scam TrendsTurbo, operated by KMA Group LLC in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (please read this report here).
Bitcoin Code is just one of the dozens of currently active fraudulent campaigns produced and operated by digital marketing agencies in Cyprus and Israel. These campaigns and their operators are an essential element of the global scammer scene and should be aggressively pursued by law enforcement authorities and regulators. FinTelegram will continue to urge the authorities to go for those fraudsters to protect investors.
