Press
“The legal bear” and the liability risks associated with AI-generated images – 13.05.2024
Pierre Bounin is a lawyer at Herfurtner Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, based in Hamburg. In this interview, he explains why AI-generated images may infringe third-party rights and how this can be prevented.
“According to the current legal situation, the rights of use to AI-generated images created using OpenAI software generally lie with the user. However, this presupposes that no material has been used that infringes the rights of third parties. At the same time, you must check the generated graphic to see whether the elements inserted or adapted by the AI infringe the personal or property rights of third parties.”
IWW Institute, AK 24, 86
Telegram rip-off: False promises under a false name – 06.03.24
Fraudsters are becoming increasingly skilful, for example by using well-known media brands for fake accounts. A lot is then promised to those affected – and in combination with the often limited experience of investors, this becomes a problem, says lawyer Bounin. Some of those who seek help from the law firm have invested five to seven-figure sums. “Any number of people can fall for it, nobody can be blamed for that.” […]
Bounin advises people to press charges so that the authorities become aware in the first place. This step is not hopeless either: there are ways to defend yourself and also to track down the perpetrators. This is a lengthy process, often lasting years, says Bounin, but there have also been successes where clients of the law firm have recovered a lot of money.
Crypto Scams by Women: How Perpetrators Play with Their Victims | Love Scams | Love Bombing – 08/21/2023
Attorney Arthur Wilms advises injured parties: Have your individual case examined as early as possible and we will tell you quite transparently the chances of success and the legal options we see.
“I’m just closing a case where one of our clients is getting 150,000 euros back. […] That shows quite clearly that these cases are not always in no man’s land.”
Crypto Scams by Women: How Perpetrators Play with Their Victims
AI in the world of work – Algorithm take over! – 02.05.2023
Lawyer Arthur Wilms in the interview: “There are enough possibilities for the works council to control and regulate the use of AI.”
The biggest scam – 04.03.2023
The number of unreported cases is “unbelievably huge”, says Arthur Wilms, who works for the German law firm Herfurtner and represents hundreds of victims every year. One of them is Lorenz Krüger. Very few of them know that they have been the victim of a fraud, Wilms explains. They believe that the prices were bad. Many do not even go to the police: out of shame or because they are completely resigned.
A lot paid and nothing kept: The scam with coaching seminars – 16.01.2023
Coaching contract scams: Online coaching offers are widespread and currently on the rise. A wide range of trainings, workshops, seminars and other types of webinars are advertised on social media platforms. These advertisements often promise great personal and professional success to people who choose the appropriate service. However, there are many dubious and fraudulent providers in the coaching market. Lawyer Arthur Wilms comments on the topic in a video interview with Neffets and gives helpful tips on how to protect yourself from coaching scammers.
Neffets: Paid a lot and kept nothing: The coaching seminar scam
A prodigy crashes, taking $220 billion with it: Lessons from FTX’s mega-bankruptcy – 15.11.2022
Bankman-Fried – the former star of the scene – is suspected of having been a big fraud […] Arthur Wilms of the Herfurtner law firm advises: “Under no circumstances should you let yourself be influenced by dazzling personalities.” Indeed, Bankman-Fried was considered a prodigy of the scene. Within a few years, he turned FTX into one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. But now the big crash followed.
Finma investigates, German prosecutors investigate: Swiss International Commodity AG – 01.10.2022
Swiss International Commodity AG is said to have lured investors for an IPO that never existed […] For Arthur Wilms, lawyer at the Herfurtner law firm based in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich, one thing is certain: “The SIC AG case has several indications that could point to investment fraud.” Wilms represents several people who are each claiming back between 70000 and 130000 euros. And they fear not to see their money again. “We can’t put a figure on the total damage, but it’s probably in the millions,” says Wilms. According to him, telemarketers had contacted his clients and advertised the IPO of SIC AG: “They were promised high returns on the pre-IPO purchase of shares”.
Juicy Fields: What can be done | Interview with lawyer Arthur Wilms – 26.08.2022
What can be done now in the Juicyfields case. An interview with Mr Arthur Wilms, lawyer.
Der Tagesspiegel – Study on sustainable investments: Lured into bad deals with nice promises – 10/13/2021
Attorney Patrick Wilson from the law firm Herfurtner in Munich regularly deals with fraud cases from the gray capital market. His tip: react quickly. Especially when payment was made with cryptocurrencies, it is difficult to trace the money.
Handelsblatt – Accomplice of the “Wolf of Sofia”: Indictment after online investment fraud in the millions – 11.10.2021
Attorney Markus Moser of the Herfurtner law firm is pleased with the success of the investigation. The successes showed that action via the investigative authorities could lead to success and that injured parties should not remain inactive.
Handelsblatt – Cyber fraudsters as customers: Investor protectors accuse HSBC of deficiencies in money laundering prevention – 10.09.2021
Boiler room scams are also nothing new for lawyer Markus Moser from the Herfurtner law firm in Munich.
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In his experience, however, the newer cases differ from conventional online investment scams in their professionalism. The supposed investment advisors are true professionals and speak straight Oxford English, says attorney Moser. “They’re not merely psychologically trained,” the attorney says. “They know what they’re talking about.”
NZZ – How a German entrepreneur was deprived of millions in assets by fraudsters from Asia – 23.06.2021
“Often, the accounts are then closed immediately. “The authorities are still trying to trace the payment flows, but the banks don’t always cooperate,” says Markus Moser, a lawyer at the Herfurtner law firm in Munich. Moser represents Dacher and other victims from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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The alleged intermediaries primarily use social networks such as Linkedin to select their victims,” says attorney Moser. They often look for self-employed entrepreneurs. That way, they assume that their victims have the necessary savings. Then the scammers make contact. … The scam is typical of fraud firms such as Sendai Mebuki Holdings or Morgan Cowen Capital Markets, Moser says. “The scammers always appear professional,” Moser says. The brochures they send out are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, he says. “Some of the employees speak Oxford English and are often trained in psychology,” Moser says. But when you look more closely at the companies, you often find that they don’t even exist, Moser says. But many investors don’t bother.
NZZ – Im Netz der Bauernfänger – Online brokers licensed in Cyprus apparently exploit the ignorance of small investors. This calls prosecutors to the scene. – 21.04.2021
Attorney Markus Moser, who specializes in investment fraud and operates out of Munich for the Herfurtner law firm, knows the concerns of clients of trading platforms. Moser represents clients from Switzerland, Austria and Germany. “The platforms often operate according to the same pattern,” he says. “Often, they primarily emphasize the profit opportunities without explaining the corresponding risks and build up immense pressure.”
In addition, according to Moser, there is regular trickery in the classification of customers. After all, if a financial services provider wants to provide investment advice, it is his duty to classify customers when they open an account. Only professional investors may be advised on such products. Only those who meet at least two of these three criteria may be classified as professional investors: The client must work in the financial industry and have at least €500,000 or experience in the stock market.
ZDF File XY … unsolved – fraudulent online trade – 31.03.2021
The big scam with cybertrading – Crypto Trading
Attorney Patrick Wilson represents injured investors.
ARD plusminus – Crypto money trap – How perfidious crooks trick modern investors – 17.03.2021
“Patrick Wilson from Munich is a specialist for investment fraud with crypto money. His experience: “Should you be here before the payout or have requested a payout, then the scammers claim that you first still have to pay taxes or fees for this amount. Then it has actually never worked that a client has still paid this amount and then could obtain the payout so.” That’s because it’s not just the advertising that’s fake – the accounts with the supposedly increasing amounts are fake, too. “You really have to assume that this trading is actually not happening on these platforms. The money, which is deposited there by the aggrieved parties, is certainly put by the fraudsters directly into their own pockets and this whole trading is then only faked. So these trading platforms are pure computer simulations,” explains attorney Patrick Wilson.”
tagesschau.de – Fraudsters take advantage of Bitcoin surge: the cryptocurrency trap – 03/17/2021
“But such providers are far more than 90 percent dubious, as attorney Patrick Wilson of the law firm Herfurtner emphasizes. The law firm represents victims of such crypto trading platforms. … “The money that is deposited there by the injured parties is certainly put directly into their own pockets by the scammers, and all of this trading is just pretended to you.”… “So these trading platforms are pure computer simulations.”
“That’s how it was for many of Attorney Wilson’s clients. One of them told Plusminus about his experience, …”
Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) Kassensturz – Online investment fraud – Bitcoin scammers pull investors over the table – 16.02.2021
Patrick Wilson, attorney: “The scammers have established an elaborate network…”
SRF – Kassensturz vom 16.02.2021
Kassensturz Video
NZZ – Online investment scammers promise quick riches and drain their victims’ entire life savings – 27.07.2020
“The authorities have now taken notice of the company. The British Financial Market Authority (FCA), for example, has placed the company on its warning list. Patrick Wilson also strongly advises against using the trading platform. He is a lawyer at the German Herfurtner law firm and specializes in the machinations of investment fraudsters. … Wilson’s law firm represents about twenty investors who lost their money with this provider. The first inquiries to Grandefex had arrived in May. But the lawyer expects that there will soon be more. “As soon as the portal is taken offline because of too many negative reviews, even the last investors will notice that something is rotten here.”
CFD-Trading: “Dubious providers spring up like mushrooms” – 19.10.2019
“Frequently, inexperienced consumers are put under so much pressure that they do not take the time to research the suppliers,” says consumer protector Rehren, describing the procedure. “The advisors act respectably and throw around with high-flown terms – with the goal of creating confidence”, says lawyer Wagner-Arendt. Many providers would make the calls using Voice-Over-IP in order to be able to give a wrong location.
OE1- “YouTube Gurus and WhatsApp Millionaires” – 17.05.2019
Consumer protectors as well as lawyers warn against dubious trading platforms that promise fast money. The lawyer Patrick Wilson from the German law firm Herfurtner Rechtsanwälte has specialized, among other things, in the action against dubious online brokers.
He reports from his everyday life: “If I now had to report from my everyday experience with these cases, you can assume that really 99 percent of the providers who offer this business model, this online trading, with certain stock exchange products, such as so-called CFDs, i.e. Contract for Difference, or even earlier also very much like binary options or currently also increasingly with crypto currencies, that these providers actually act fraudulently here through the bank.
WirtschaftsWoche – “The gold rip-off” – 11.07.2019
Ktipp – “Fall for the swindlers” – 24.10.2018
“A man lost 490000 francs because he believed the fairy tales of Japanese stockbrokers. “K-Money tells the lies the perpetrators told.”
Ktipp – Auf raffinierte Betrüger hereingefallen
ARD plusminus – “Online broker – How the dream of fast money bursts” – 17.07.2018
The first. plusminus TV_Contribution
This man in Munich knows the systematic rip-off of online brokers like no other. awyer Patrick Wilson. He handles hundreds of such cases. Investors who have lost large sums of money.
“It is really amazing what kind of seasoned businessmen are involved who can’t even explain it afterwards. They are dealing with people who are absolute professionals. “Anyone who thinks they can avoid this is wrong.”
Bayerischer Rundfunk – Magazine for Economic and Social Affairs – 03/08/2016
In a report on Bayerischer Rundfunk, lawyer Patrick Wilson explains the risks of ship funds:
For intermediaries and banks, the main focus was to get as many ship investments as possible to the man and woman. Because intermediaries and banks have collected a commission for each mediation.
Charter rates have fallen and there has been a long service life of the ships. As a result, in many cases profits could no longer be made.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – “When a direct investment is suddenly no longer a direct investment” – 06.07.2016
After the insolvency of Magellan and Lignum, investors experience a nasty surprise. Container buyers have to fear for their rights from the lease and even in the case of the precious wood bankruptcy many questions remain unanswered
Although the investors themselves could probably enter into the contracts with the Bulgarian sub-contractors, a critical mass is needed, says Patrick Wilson, a lawyer at the Munich law firm Herfurtner.
Wenn ein Direkt-Investment plötzlich keines mehr ist
Jurablogs – 05.06.2016
Lawyer Wolfgang Herfurtner: Rights of bank customers strengthened – By a decision of the Federal Court the duties of disclosure of certificates by banks were extended.
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