German authorities reported on 25 September 2026 that they had disconnected 9,304 phone numbers linked to suspected fraud in the previous three months. The action targets the supply of telephone numbers and communications services to international fraud networks, described by German police as “crime as a service”.
The Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s telecoms regulator, has also ordered the providers involved to tighten their KYC controls by changing number-registration procedures and strengthening compliance checks on distributors and dealers.
The action is part of Operation Herakles, a campaign led by cybercrime prosecutors in Karlsruhe and the Baden-Württemberg state criminal police to disrupt the websites and communications services used by fraud networks. BaFin, Germany’s financial regulator, has helped investigators identify the suspect telephone numbers.
The principal target is online investment fraud. Professional-looking trading websites display fictitious profits, whilst callers posing as financial advisers persuade victims to deposit money. When the victims try to withdraw their supposed returns, they cannot.
The criminals making these calls do not need to build their own telecoms operation. In its December 2025 account of Herakles, the state criminal police described telephone numbers and communications services being rented to international fraud networks and used at scale to commit crimes. The numbers identified included fixed-line, mobile and internet-based telephone services. Investigators also suspected their use in scams involving fake police officers and callers pretending to be relatives in distress.
Herakles has now disconnected 13,888 numbers in total, comprising 13,397 German and 491 Austrian numbers. Earlier phases of the operation also took more than 2,200 suspected fraud-related domains offline in June and October 2025.
Commsrisk already tracks the Bundesnetzagentur’s regular telephone-number deactivation orders in the Global Fraud Dashboard. We introduced the German data last year, showing how the regulator routinely disconnects numbers used for spam texts, robocalls and other abuses.
Herakles combines that regulatory power with criminal investigations into the infrastructure supplied to fraud networks. Providers involved in the latest action have been told to change their registration processes and strengthen compliance checks on their distribution partners and dealers, with the aim of preventing further abusive registration and use of numbers.
Access to genuine telephone numbers is also the issue at the heart of our recent report on Ofcom’s investigations into telecoms businesses owned by Ericsson and Bandwidth. The UK regulator is investigating whether Vonage Business Limited and Voxbone SA, which operates under the Bandwidth brand, met their obligations to prevent the misuse of telephone numbers.
Ofcom expects providers to carry out KYC checks on businesses buying their services and to continue monitoring how their numbers are used. In Germany, investigators have identified numbers used by suspected fraud networks, and the providers supplying them have been ordered to change their registration procedures and tighten oversight of their resellers.
You can read the 25 September announcement here. It was issued jointly by Karlsruhe’s public prosecutor general’s office, the Baden-Württemberg state criminal police, BaFin and the Bundesnetzagentur.
