Financial Fraudsters: The FMA Reported Total Loss This Year Over 15 Million.

The total loss reported to the FMA due to financial fraudsters was around 15.5 million euros in 2024, last year it was 12.8 million euros, according to the authority on Monday. The number of cryptocurrency fraud cases almost doubled according to the FMA from 244 to 409. A total of 840 people reported to the consumer hotline of the authority in 2024 - the highest reported loss of a private individual was 996,109 euros.

Warnings from FMA

The FMA's warnings about individuals and companies that are not allowed to offer and carry out mandatory financial services and transactions also reached a record level in 2024. The warning messages are published on the FMA's website and the federal electronic announcement and information platform (EVI). In total, there were 145 investor warnings this year - in 2022 there were still 84, in 2023 there were 106. In 2024, most of the warning messages concerned "fraudulent trading platforms offering services related to financial products (...)".

Increased "Celebrity Scams"

The number of financial frauds is increasing, among other things, because the fraudsters are among the first to "adopt new technologies and use them for illegal purposes". In 2024, there was also an increase in so-called "celebrity scams", where the fraud victims are contacted via social networks using deepfake postings with celebrities who have allegedly become rich with secret investments. "Even if their methods are modern, the stories with which they seduce their victims are always the same. High profit at low risk, secret investment tricks that the banks do not reveal", said FMA board members Helmut Ettl and Eduard Müller in the announcement.

(APA/Red)

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