Most scambaiters are familiar with refund and tech support scams – the kind where scammers pretend to be from Paypal, Amazon, Microsoft, … and connect to your PC. These mostly target US victims and require scambaiters to have a U.S. phone number and make outbound calls.
But there’s another, less known (but bait-worthy) scam type that’s especially active in Europe: Investment Scams
What is the Scam?
Investment scammers set up fake “financial service” companies and advertise on:
- Social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
- Fake news articles
- Popups on shady websites
Once a victim clicks, they’re redirected to a fake investment platform offering “huge profits” from trading crypto, forex, or stocks. Here’s how it usually plays out:
- You register on the scam website with a name, email, and phone number.
- Soon after, a call center scammer calls you and says you can start with a small deposit (usually €200–€300) or gives you the login to a fake dashboard to invest.
- They give you a bank account to send your first deposit to (this is where we get money mule accounts to report).
- They fake a dashboard showing fake profits to lure you into investing more. This can escalate into full-blown pig butchering.
Important: These “companies” are NEVER licensed or regulated by any financial regulator (like BaFin, FCA, etc.). If they’re offering investment services without regulation, they’re scammers.
Why This is Great for EU Scambaiters
Unlike refund scams, this type:
- Targets European victims (Germany, France, UK, etc.)
- Only needs a European VoIP number to bait (you don’t even need to call out!)
- Is simple to start – just register and wait for the callback
- Might give out money mule bank accounts for reporting (or just pi** them off)
You can then:
- Troll them on the phone and waste their time
- Play along and collect a bank account for reporting
- (Rare) Allow access to a VM and attempt to reverse-connect for OSINT
Where to Get Inspiration
There are some scambaiters in 
Germany already doing this (and I teamed up with them). If you speak German, you can check out these channels for reference:
- https://www.youtube.com/@Telefonziege
- https://www.youtube.com/@Ziggy_Scambuster
- https://www.youtube.com/@CallcenterCrusher
- https://www.youtube.com/@badluigi7134
- …
Unfortunately, there are very few 
UK-based scambaiters doing this. The only one I found so far is:
- https://www.youtube.com/@RomanceScammersAndOnlineScams
- @mrwn and “Agent G9” recently did a nice video even digging deeper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOD9FSaymr8
How to Start
- Get a European VoIP number (e.g., from Zadarma, voip.ms, etc.)
- Register on investment-scam platforms (a good source is the FCA warning list, if they post a website their it’s 99% scam and you can register https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/warning-list-unauthorised-firms if you need more send me a DM)
- Wait for the call
- Engage – troll, delay, and if you can: try to grab mule accounts you can report, if you want try to reverse connect if they do the anydesk-game.
If you’re looking to go beyond tech support scambaiting and hit a scam type that’s massive in Europe, this is might be interesting.
Feel free to drop me a DM if you want to know more.
Cheers from Germany
dubloox3