Overview

• In coordinated dawn operations in Dormagen, Düsseldorf, Cologne and the Rhein-Erft district, police and prosecutors executed 25 search warrants against an alleged bank‑impersonation network.
• Five men aged 18 to 24 were arrested on court warrants and are in pretrial detention, while an additional warrant was served on a 20-year-old already jailed in another case.
• Probes led by the Neuss police commission with Düsseldorf prosecutors, supported by units such as EK Debit and ZeOS NRW, have identified about 27 suspects aged 18 to 26 across multiple nationalities.
• The alleged scheme involved callers posing as bank staff who cited fake suspicious transactions to obtain victims’ PINs and EC cards, which couriers then collected.
• Officials say evidence seized at the 25 locations is under analysis; separately, police arrested a suspect after a €30,000 ‘shock call’ in Erfurt and the BKA issued a public appeal in a WhatsApp pump‑and‑dump fraud with nationwide damages in the tens of millions.