The form of investment fraud described on this website has reached frightening proportions. Unfortunately, the interest of public institutions – be it public prosecutors, police authorities or politicians – is low and characterized by a lack of competence. While the criminals blithely conduct their business across state borders, the police authorities cease their activities as soon as the money has been transferred abroad.
The following links should provide some overview on the topic.
Help with fraud
Anyone who has lost money to fraudsters in Southeast Asia will quickly find numerous offers from lawyers on the Internet offering their services. In our experience, these lawyers are very willing to charge high amounts, but the probability that you will get your money back is hardly increased by their services. Therefore, we cannot make a recommendation here.
In our experience, you will be better represented by:
EFRI – the European Funds Recovery Initiative (https://efri.io/).
EFRI is a non-profit organization that supports fraud victims in many ways. Membership costs a one-time fee of 75 Euros. EFRI was instrumental in uncovering the Wirecard scandal.
Additionally, one can find many tips and information in the Facebook group “Financial Fraud Victims International“. For their participation one registers first:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/102239743981274/
The group is also moderated by the EFRI team.
Information on Boiler Room Scams
Dutchman Frans Roest has written a comprehensive book on the subject of boiler room scams. It describes in detail all aspects of this “business model”:
Share Fraud & Boiler Room Scams Exposed
Information about Recovery Scams
A particularly perfidious form of the Boiler Room Scam is the so-called Recovery Fraud.
A while after you have been scammed, a company will come forward claiming to recover your lost money. In most cases, these are business partners of the original scammers.
FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) has written a very good summary on this:
It Can Be Hard to Recover from “Recovery” Scams.
Websites describing similar scam patterns:
An article from Northern Germany describing the case of an unscrupulously cheated pensioner:
https://www.kreiszeitung-wochenblatt.de/harsefeld/c-wirtschaft/wertlose-wertpapiere_a156710
The Adiceltic portal maintains a page with plenty of information on this form of investment fraud:
https://adiceltic.de/investmentbetrug
The private website “Sumselkawumsel” compiles a wealth of information on scam companies and their methods. See also here: Sumselkawumsel2
The English language site “Investment scammers” names numerous other fraudulent companies:
https://www.investmenthoax.com/voice-samples-of-scammers
Articles on the subject of “investment fraud”
An article from EFRI about Hong Kong as a financial center and an optimal biotope for scammers:
Hong Kong – a great place for scammers!
Another article about the inglorious role of banks, which ignore all standards on money laundering and “Know Your Client” and thus form the business basis for scammers:
Defrauding Europe and the West? How Hong Kong banks facilitate the defrauding of thousands of unsuspecting Europeans
The banks’ unwillingness to comply with international rules against money-laundering, is evidenced by this article from 2015 – not much has changed since then:
Hong Kong banks caught up in ‘boiler room’ money laundering schemes