Investment fraud in Austria? 5 tips and case description!
Should you come across one investment fraud fell in and out Austria come, we can help you. Our law firm specializes in the legal handling of trading scams and fraudulent brokers. We support clients from Austria, Germany and Switzerland in cases of investment fraud.
Important: Investment fraud is a criminal offense in Austria! Pursuant to Section 146 of the Austrian Criminal Code, anyone who intentionally damages another person’s assets through deception is acting fraudulently. The Austrian legislator provides for a prison sentence for the perpetrators of trading fraud. Furthermore, according to § 148 of the Austrian Penal Code, commercial fraud is punished even more severely.
Our law firm offers the following free service to those affected by investment fraud in Austria:
- Contact us by email without obligation
- Let us know which broker or platform it is
- Write to us why YOU specifically suspect investment fraud
- Also inform us that YOU are from Austria and not from Germany or Switzerland, so that we can correctly assign your request
- You will receive a free initial assessment of your case from us – based on Austrian law!
In the case of investment fraud, the priority is to initiate legal action against the perpetrators as quickly as possible. This is the only way to get the lost money back.
Case study of an investment fraud from Austria, which we have legally processed!
Our client was looking for attractive capital investment opportunities and came across an internet advertisement for an Austrian Facebook profile. There it was said that you could achieve big winnings with a bet of only 250 euros. Investor Warren Buffet was mentioned in the advertisement and a reference to cryptocurrencies was made. Austrian-based crypto exchange Bitpanda was also mentioned in the ad. Although our client was basically interested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, he had no experience in this area.
The advertisement follows to the platform Sealimited. Our client was contacted by phone from a woman from Sealimited. Frau Fallbeil called from a number from Austria so that this at least appeared serious. During this phone call, our client received instructions on how to set up a customer account. He follows these instructions.
At the time, our client could not have guessed that there was investment fraud.
Mrs. Fallbeil used AnyDesk and the trading app MetaTrader4. An account has been created for MetaTrader4. Our client then received bank details to which the 250 euros would have to be transferred. Our client did not receive any contract documents or other documents for the account opening from Sealimited.
What’s next with the trading scam from Austria?
It was explained to our client that a kind of foreign exchange trading can be carried out with MetaTrader4. This is about trading commodities such as oil, but also cryptocurrencies. The respective trades were then not carried out by our client, but by Sealimited staff for our clients. However, our client has not given anyone power of attorney to conclude financial transactions.
Further deposits by our client followed to accounts with the crypto exchange Kraken and the crypto exchange Coinbase. As soon as our client’s money arrived on these exchanges, Sealimited converted it into Bitcoin (BTC) there. The bitcoins were then forwarded to three different Sealimited BTC addresses. Even at this point in time, our client was not yet aware that he had become the victim of investment fraud.
However, our client does not have access to these wallets. Although the data can be viewed on the blockchain, there is no way for our client to transfer his bitcoins from these addresses.
Our client made the further payments because he was encouraged and almost urged to do so. They said you can only 250 euros not large sums expect, therefore, are necessary to take larger deposits. From our other case studies on investment fraud, we know that this is a common procedure for the perpetrators. The 250 euros are said to have yielded strong percentage returns, but this is not relevant due to the regular sum. You can move more with larger sums, according to Sealimited. Our client was told that many other customers from Austria would make far more investments.
Perpetrator may come from Austria – investment fraud is now being legally processed by us!
In the telephone calls with various people from Sealimited, our clients realize that although they had a good knowledge of German, Austrian accent be audible.
Using the MetaTrader4 app, our client can still see the good returns. However, our client does not have access to the profits. In the meantime, our client received a payment of 450 euros, presumably to build trust. However, there was no further payment of his invested funds, or even of profits.
Sealimited only asked for more and more money, taxes to be equalized, course adjustments to be made, commissions to be paid. All of this is sometimes not permitted for a broker in Austria, but our client does not have the experience to assess this.
Our client transferred a total of EUR 55,750.00 to Sealimited. He then decided to engage a specialized law firm and defend himself against the investment fraud. Since our client could not find a competent law firm in Austria, he contacted us and finally commissioned us.
Reporting on investment fraud in Austria suggests that there are many victims!
A look at the media coverage of Austrian newspapers reveals that investment fraud is actually widespread. More people are affected than you would think. For example, the Kurier website reports damage of over one million euros due to investment fraud in Austria (as of January 2022). The number of unreported cases here should be enormous.
The Kurier reports on a fake IPO. Investors were led to believe that an upcoming IPO would accelerate prices. In fact, however, the IPO did not take place, the matter turned out to be a botched investment fraud – neither the sale of shares nor any profits from the announced IPO could be profitably realized by those affected.
The financial supervisory authority in Austria also reports publicly warning messages to various criminal trading platforms. On the website of the Austrian Financial Supervisory Authority there are the so-called Investor Warnings in current or archived form. In some cases, and particularly perfidiously, some scammers even give themselves up as state authorities and imitate the Austrian financial supervisory authority with a fake seal in order to extort more money from those affected.
Our law firm supports you with fraudulent brokers in Austria!
We are now receiving more and more inquiries from clients in Austria and Switzerland. Therefore, we have decided to proceed according to Austrian law and Swiss law in order to prosecute the perpetrators behind the investment fraud.
Pursuant to Section 2 of the Austrian Financial Market Authority Act (FMABG), the Austrian Financial Supervisory Authority exercises its supervision of legally defined financial service providers. Section 4 (1) (1) of the Austrian Banking Act (BWG) also states that financial service providers require a license. In the vast majority of investment fraud cases that we process, the corresponding fraudulent platforms do not have such a license in Austria.
In these scenarios, it is important to also involve the payment services. In addition, we refer to § 20 Para. 5 No. 3 of the Austrian Payment Services Act and the obligation of the payment service provider specified in this provision to provide all information necessary for recovering the payment amount so that the payer can assert a claim for reimbursement of the payment amount against the holder of the recipient account .
Use our free initial assessment, so that you can make an informed decision as to the extent to which you wish to take legal action to defend yourself against investment fraud. If we don’t see any chance of getting the money back, we’ll share it offend and honest with – without any costs being incurred for this initial assessment.
- Send us your description of the case by email (please mention that you are from Austria)
- We look at your investment fraud, and we do it for free!
- You will receive a free initial assessment and can make a decision!