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Albanian crypto-scammer named Jon faces up to 10 years in prison for his role in an Albania-based cryptocurrency investment fraud that targeted foreign citizens.
Speaking anonymously under the pseudonym Jon, he bluntly dismissed any moral responsibility for the crime in a Tirana cafe.
The Albanian capital has become a favored location for scam call centers in recent years, according to former policeman Fatjon Softa, due to the city's multilingual population, low wages and possibilities to launder funds.
Jon, whose name has been changed to preserve his anonymity, said he modelled himself on Jordan Belfort, the stockbroker who cheats his way to the top, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film "The Wolf of Wall Street."
Posing as an American from a luxury office in central Tirana, Jon contacted victims who had already been singled out.
"My job was to lure them in and convince them to invest," said Jon, adding that he sometimes felt "proud" of the job he did.
The job earned the Albanian in his twenties €1,450 (a little under $1,700) per month before performance bonuses, compared to the country's minimum wage of €500 before taxes.
Jon called it an "excellent opportunity, very well paid." But after six months in the job, he is now required to check in with the court every week until he is tried on fraud charges that carry a jail term of three to 10 years.
At the end of April, several Albanian scam centers, including the one Jon worked in, were dismantled following an investigation by police in the southwestern French city of Pau.
French investigators had been seeking to track down the scammers since a 2023 complaint from an investor who lost €30,000 after investing in a platform called universatrade.io.
They eventually identified 19 French victims who had lost around €1.5 million in the scams.
One of those victims, a businesswoman based in the south of France, said her misfortune began when she clicked on an ad about investing in oil.
"Ten minutes later I received a call," said Chantal, whose name has also been changed to protect her anonymity.
"My daughter was getting married, I told myself I could make a little bit extra," she added.
Initially, Chantal only invested €250, but after seeing her money quickly quadruple, she succumbed when advisors asked if she wanted to invest more money. Soon she was in for €80,000.
Chantal said she researched the investment platforms and found them on the internet, with profiles of their advisors on LinkedIn. One even sent a copy of his identity card.
By December, three months after her initial investment, Chantal’s account showed €300,000 in gains. But when she tried to withdraw €30,000 in cryptocurrency, the illusion shattered.
"That's when everything went down the drain," she said. Yet even as doubts set in, the scammers maintained a tight grip, calling 15 to 20 times a day and convincing her that more investment would unlock her funds.
"They’ve got you. What can you do? They have your money," said Chantal.
"You don’t sleep all night, your brain just can’t cope. And the next day, they tell you: 'By noon there has to be this amount, otherwise you won't get your money back,'" she added.
"So you pay the amount. An hour later, they say it’ll be in your account. But it's not there. And you cry, you scream your head off."
A lawyer helped Chantal recover a portion of the funds, but she lost them again. Devastated, Chantal admitted she reached a point where she contemplated ending her life, but her family intervened.
"People say that victims are gullible but the scams are put together well. They are very "sophisticated," said a source close to the investigation.
French investigators were eventually able to track the scammers to Albania, and a police raid recovered a computer hard drive with the names and contact information of the French victims.
Five Albanian nationals were arrested, including the suspected mastermind and owner of the call center, who was remanded into custody pending trial.
As Albania does not extradite its citizens, French prosecutors plan to drop their case in favor of their Albanian colleagues, who have promised to seek compensation for French victims.
Chantal wants to testify so others avoid her misfortune. "They steal more than your money. They steal your dignity," she said.
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