In the Latin American business culture, the word "confianza" is the basis of any transaction and is considered by many to be more important than any signed paper. The cultural code holds that if a person speaks your language, knows the nuances of your habitat and forms a warm personal relationship, they are presumed to be acting in good faith. However, when this approach - which sanctifies personal connection - meets the cynical and alienated world of digital investment fraud, the result is often devastating.
While bitter experience caused immigrants who came to Israel from the former Soviet Union or France to develop a "suspicion muscle" over the past decade, it seems that the Latino community in Israel today remains vulnerable to harm. As part of the handling of cross-border fraud cases, we identified a recurring and sophisticated pattern of action by experienced criminal elements: the first stage almost always begins with an attractive Facebook ad, formulated in Spanish or Portuguese, that creates the impression of a non-Israeli related company, even though in practice we discovered that the fraudsters are operating from Israel, using foreign SIM cards and routing calls to obscure their location. After filling in the details, a native-speaking representative has a pleasant conversation aimed at creating trust, at the end of which the victim is requested to deposit a small initial amount and is asked to download an app that seems completely trustworthy. This is where the main stage of fraud occurs: while the amounts presented in the app as "profits" do not exist and the money deposited is no longer under the control of the victim, when the victim is exposed to the impressive profits, he is encouraged to increase the investment and sometimes even receives instructions on how to take loans from the bank based on false data.
One of the main red flags is how the funds are transferred: the money is not transferred to an official company account, but to private accounts or "Money Mules" - other victims whose accounts are used to transfer the funds onwards. The final and painful stage comes at the time of the withdrawal request, when a chain of demands for additional payments begins ("tax", "release fee") until the relationship is severed. In many cases, victims are later exposed to a new approach from a "foreign lawyer" offering assistance in returning the funds - a fraudulent means of stealing additional funds.
Anyone who tries to file a lawsuit encounters a wall: no defendant, no service-of-process address, and the money flowed through a tangled network of crypto conversions or shell accounts. In this state of affairs, the traditional legal tools of judgment enforcement or tort claim become, in practice, a dead letter. Because the police will certainly not be able to help in such a case, in order to overcome the obstacle, cooperation between intelligence and law is required, with the world of private investigations providing the intelligence that may turn an anonymous IP address or virtual phone number into the identity of a real person. However, intelligence is only half the way. In order to turn the information into money that is returned to the account, a very specific legal framework is required. Contacting a lawyer who is not familiar with the secrets of the crypto world and the digital money routes, or one who does not speak the language of the victims (and the crooks), is a lost battle in advance. Victory in this arena requires a combination of forces by an internationally oriented firm that is familiar with criminal-economic matter, masters blockchain technology, and knows how to conduct the campaign in the original language - Spanish or Portuguese. Only in this way, the fraudster, who believed to be operating in a vacuum, suddenly finds himself exposed to personal lawsuits, foreclosures and stay of exit orders.
So what can be done? Before all, early prevention: Any investment, certainly one that begins with a proactive approach on social media, requires examination and thought in advance, and even consultation with a lawyer. But, if the case occurred, a swift response after being harmed is the key to success: even if damage has already been caused, one should not conclude that all is lost. A proper combination of legal counsel from a lawyer proficient in the field and professional investigation allows, in certain cases, the identification of involved parties, the tracing of money movements, and the building of an essential evidentiary infrastructure for further legal and enforcement action. The combination of cultural understanding, investigative capability to locate hidden identities, and legal determination, is currently the only tool that allows not only the prevention of the next fraud, but also the attempt to recover the stolen assets after the fact.