Wiener Polizei schnappte Rip-Deal-Betrüger: 1.2 Mio. Euro Schaden

Most of the victims, who were mainly robbed of cryptocurrencies, come from Austria. The Dutch national was arrested in Milan in collaboration with Europol and was already sentenced to three years in prison by the St. Pölten regional court in October this year, police reported on Thursday.

Unlike the classic rip-deal, where counterfeit money is almost always handed over against offered luxury goods such as high-priced watches, gold coins and gold bars, the arrested 39-year-old man was primarily interested in emptying the crypto accounts of its victims. . Investigators from the Rip-Deal Unit of the Vienna State Criminal Police therefore speak of a “Rip-Deal 2.0”. Counterfeit money with a nominal value of 200,000 euros was also seized from the Dutchman of Serbian origin. This type of crime is usually committed by experienced gangs and clans in the Western Balkans region, as was the case here.

The investigations were carried out under the name “Operation Dallas”, because the main suspect identified within the clan is internally called “Kennedy”, explained Chief Inspector Gerald Goldnagl, head of the Rip- Vienna Deal, during a substantive discussion. The case began after a private detective from Vorarlberg contacted special investigators in Vienna with several victims in 2021.

“One of the victims was a Lower Austrian from St. Pölten who wanted to sell his apartment in Italy,” reported Valentin Szaga-Doktor, one of the detectives involved. The victim was contacted by suspected businessmen who wanted to meet in the Netherlands and demanded a commission of 75,000 euros as intermediaries for the sale. In exchange, they gave the Lower Austrian residents the purchase price of the apartment in counterfeit money and fled – a classic scam.

“We were able to resolve the case relatively quickly,” Szaga-Doktor said. Photos and voice recordings of the suspect were secured and more cases emerged involving the defendant with the stage name “Kennedy.” The other victims came from the district of Tulln in Lower Austria, from Salzburg, a Viennese businessman, an entrepreneur from the district of Liezen as well as a victim from Switzerland and Germany, where the German detectives showed up due to investigations in Austria.

Here, the perpetrators mainly demanded cryptocurrencies to prove the victims’ creditworthiness. In the case of the entrepreneur from the Liezen district, it was an attempted rip-deal. The criminals tried to persuade him to deposit 131,000 euros into a crypto wallet for mediation with a company selling industrial machines, Szaga-Doktor explained. However, the father of a policewoman became suspicious and found warnings about rip deals on the Internet, his daughter turned to the Rip-Deal-Unit in Vienna.

Perpetrators first establish a broad base of trust with their victim. The approach is “brilliant,” said Mario Kaintz, one of the other investigators. Victims are almost always invited abroad, to a hotel or pleasant environment, often in Italy. According to Kaintz, fraudsters exploit both ignorance and people familiar with cryptocurrencies. When entering a password or associated “seed phrase” into a new or existing crypto wallet, the phone screen is spied on, for example via ceiling cameras.

“The crypto assets are then no longer entirely yours,” Kaintz said. No need for a second meeting, “the criminals already have everything” and can empty the crypto account. It is not even a “hack”, stressed the criminologist. “In the end, one can only hope that this does not mean your economic existence.” Therefore, wallets should never be created in the presence of other people. “Don’t be talked into installing a new wallet,” Kaintz cautioned. “A reputable business partner never demands a specific portfolio.”

Video calls for crypto questions or a test transfer should also never be made. “Never scan QR codes for wallet addresses that you do not trust 100 percent,” the expert emphasized. “Never hand over your smartphone,” Kaintz said, even though it should be “clear,” but it’s done anyway because trust is created in advance, he explained.

The main perpetrator, arrested in Milan in July 2024, had already been convicted and sentenced to prison terms abroad in 2009 and 2011. In 2016, investigations were also opened against him for serious theft of 80,000 euros on a Styrian woman, but no investigation was carried out against him. conviction. During the trial in St. Pölten, the accused paid 100,000 euros in compensation to one of his victims, which was seen as a reduction in the sentence. Two accomplices of the 39-year-old man are known, a Dutchman and a Serb are wanted, Szaga-Doktor reported.

Martin Roudny from the Vienna State Criminal Police also welcomed the success of the Rip-Deal Unit’s investigation. Since 2020, special investigators have resolved 102 cases of rip-dealing for a total amount of damages of 25 million euros, he explained. There is now a “particular development in the field of crypto-crime”. The number of unreported cases of these crimes is still higher, Goldnagl said. Many victims are deterred from reporting to the police because the perpetrators sometimes also involve them in the crime, for example in handing over counterfeit currency abroad, the head of the Rip-Deal unit said.

This article has been machine translated, read the original article here.