Internet fraud costs Carinthian woman over €100,000 – fake trading platform
A 64-year-old woman from the Völkermarkt district lost more than €100,000 through an online investment fraud. Her bank eventually alerted her to the fraud.
Social media advertising leads 64-year-old into fraud trap
As krone.at reports, a 64-year-old woman from the Carinthian district of Völkermarkt became a victim of online investment fraud – with losses exceeding €100,000.
At the end of July, the woman came across advertisements for an alleged trading platform on social media. She made contact with a purported broker via a messaging service. This individual instructed her to carry out several transfers to various accounts, according to police.
On the fake platform, everything appeared to be successful: the woman was shown a steadily growing account balance. When she eventually requested withdrawals, these were formally "approved" – however, nothing was actually transferred to her. The fraudsters cited allegedly outstanding taxes and internal booking errors as reasons.
Her bank opened her eyes to the situation: after withdrawals continued to fail, the 64-year-old contacted her financial institution – which alerted her to the fraud. At that point, she had already lost over €100,000.
Source: Google News AT — Crime (de)