"Pandora", 12 'Call Centers' are destroyed by EUROPOL in several countries, the operation also in Albania and Kosovo

12 call centers were destroyed by EUROPOL during a coded operation "Pandora". According to the announcement from EUROPOL, this action took place in Germany, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon and Kosovo. These centers were identified as sources of thousands of fraudulent calls per day as employees used a wide range of tactics, ranging from bogus calls to convincing investment scams.

"Pandora" is said to have started thanks to an attentive employee at a bank in Freiburg when a customer tried to withdraw over 100,000 euros in cash in December 2023. The employee learned that the customer had been the victim of a scam by fake police officers.

According to EUROPOL, the person in question was found to have made more than 28,000 fraudulent phone calls during 48 hours. The police then set up their own call center to deal with fraudsters.

As of December 2023, over a hundred officers were deployed to the Baden-Wurttemberg State Criminal Police Office and secured the content of over 1.3 million fraudulent phone calls. In just four months, the police recorded more than 7,500 calls, which led the authorities to initiate criminal proceedings.

In general, "call center officials" have managed to prevent financial damages for victims in over 80 percent of cases, which means that damages worth ten million euros have been prevented. This international cooperation led to the arrest of 21 suspects and the seizure of cash and items worth one million euros.