Overview

• A 19-year-old suspected money collector was arrested in early August in Lichtenfels while attempting to pick up €22,000 from a 65-year-old victim and remains in custody on suspicion of attempted commercial and gang-related fraud.
• Police in Wangen im Allgäu are investigating after a man lost nearly €300,000 to a supposed cryptocurrency trading platform that showed fake gains, issued a small payout, then demanded rising fees and taxes.
• Verbraucherzentrale Sachsen warns of sophisticated WhatsApp job scams after a woman in Landkreis Meißen lost about €30,000 following upfront payments for a fake task workflow that displayed a bogus $195,000 balance and later demanded €38,000 to “release” funds.
• Mimikama reports phishing emails posing as the finance ministry that demand €427.03 and threaten property seizure, with links leading to counterfeit payment pages designed to harvest bank credentials.
• Police highlight additional cases including a Mainz investor lured via Instagram and WhatsApp who lost over €20,000 and a Dillingen marketplace fraud that captured online-banking data, urging users to avoid unsolicited links, deny remote access, and use TAN generators or two devices for banking.