Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has supported the Cybercrime Centre at the Karlsruhe General Prosecutor’s Office and the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office in a further phase of Operation Herakles targeting infrastructure used by suspected cybercriminals linked to fraudulent online platforms. The joint action focused on identifying and disabling telephone numbers used to contact victims, with the aim of disrupting crime enabling telecommunications services and protecting consumers. By 5 December 2025, investigators had identified 3,562 predominantly German fixed line, mobile and VoIP numbers suspected of being used for calls to victims in Germany, and the responsible providers had shut down all of them. Authorities suspect the numbers were used not only for online investment fraud (cybertrading fraud) but also for other scams such as the “grandparent” scheme and impersonation of police officers, and noted that numbers and telecom services are often rented to international fraud networks as “crime as a service”. The investigation also led to the shutdown of 355 Austrian fixed line numbers in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office, and follows earlier Operation Herakles actions in June and October 2025 that took more than 2,200 domains offline. The Cybercrime Centre and the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office indicated they will continue working with BaFin and take further measures against cybertrading fraud and other forms of online enabled fraud.

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