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After a two-year investigation, Austrian and Albanian authorities recently swooped in on several alleged scam call centers in Tirana, seizing more than $1 million and arresting 10 people.
Europol said authorities had “disrupted” a criminal network that had “caused significant financial damage," totalling $59 million.
But experts say the best efforts of law enforcement may only make a dent in the booming global scam industry. That’s because the people behind such scam centers can easily shift their operations elsewhere.
“The real organizers behind the call centers are not at the physical location,” said Jorij Abraham, managing director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance.
“They have ‘sergeants’ managing the call centers for them,” he told OCCRP. “If one center is busted, the next one is easily set up.”
Europol said the call center workers in the Albanian capital specialized in languages directed at target markets. They allegedly used their language skills to build trust and then “deceive their victims, presenting false investment opportunities and convincing them to transfer significant amounts of money.”
Some victims were targeted twice, Europol said. People who had already lost money were contacted again and offered help recovering their funds, then told to open cryptocurrency accounts and make an initial deposit of 500 euros.
Abraham said victims are often targeted more than once, either by the same scammers or by others who buy their data.
That type of cooperation between scam networks creates another challenge for law enforcement.
“These are not isolated fraud schemes,” said Fatjona Mejdini, who directs a Balkans-focused program at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
“Call-centre scam networks across Europe and beyond are increasingly interconnected, relying on one another for platforms, victim contact lists, techniques, employees, and most importantly, channels and methods for transferring and laundering money,” she said.
Mejdini said the Western Balkans and parts of Eastern Europe have become fertile ground for such schemes. The region has a young, well-educated population facing limited employment opportunities, while scam centers often operate in plain sight as seemingly legitimate businesses.
Europol said the call centers in Tirana were set up like professional businesses, with as many as 450 people in departments such as IT and human resources. Each “operator” received a salary of about $938 a month, as well as commission.
The case echoes OCCRP’s previous investigations into the call center fraud industry. The 2020 Fraud Factory investigation exposed an industrial-scale investment scam including operations with links to Albania and Georgia. In 2025, Scam Empire found that two call center groups took in about $275 million from would-be investors.
