Financial Fraud in Austria Reaches Record Levels in 2024

Financial Fraud in Austria Reaches Record Levels in 2024

APA/dpa/Nicolas Armer

According to the Financial Market Authority (FMA), financial fraud has become a “growth industry.” The total losses reported to the FMA due to financial fraud amounted to approximately €15.5 million in 2024, compared to €12.8 million the previous year, the authority announced on Monday. The number of cryptocurrency fraud cases nearly doubled, rising from 244 to 409. In total, 840 individuals contacted the FMA’s consumer hotline in 2024, with the highest reported individual loss amounting to €996,109.

Warnings issued by the FMA about individuals and companies unauthorized to offer financial services also reached record levels in 2024. These warnings are published on the FMA website and the Federal Government’s Electronic Announcement and Information Platform (EVI). A total of 145 investor warnings were issued this year, compared to 84 in 2022 and 106 in 2023. Most warnings in 2024 pertained to “fraudulent trading platforms offering services related to financial products (…).”

Increasing Fraud Through Deepfake Technology

The rise in financial fraud is partly attributed to fraudsters being among the first to adopt “new technologies for illegal purposes.” In 2024, there was a significant increase in so-called “celebrity scams,” where victims were targeted via social networks using deepfake posts featuring celebrities who supposedly became wealthy through secret investments.

“Although their methods are modern, the stories they use to lure victims are always the same: high returns with low risk and secret investment tricks that banks won’t tell you about,” said FMA board members Helmut Ettl and Eduard Müller in a statement.

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