DUBAI-CYPRUS-UK-BELGIUM and a listed company - A global crime network is behind the QR code car-park scam

The www.thebureauinvestigates.com has issued  a report about its investigation into a sprawling fraud operation, a Dubai-based millionaire, and a £4bn company looking the other way.

• https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025-06-27/revealed-global-crime-network-behind-qr-code-car-park-scam

The investigations have uncovered a significant money laundering and fraud operation involving Aether Group and Worldline. Here are some key points:

1. Aether Group: Based in Dubai, Aether Group has been linked to a global scam network. This network uses shell companies in the UK and Cyprus to extract money from victims worldwide.
2. Worldline: A multinational payment company, Worldline, has been implicated in facilitating these fraudulent transactions. Internal documents suggest an internal cover-up within Worldline regarding their connections to high-risk merchants like Aether Group.
3. Scams Involved: The scams include fake QR codes on parking meters, bogus subscription services, and fraudulent websites. These scams have targeted thousands of people, leading to unauthorised transactions and significant financial losses    .
4. Legal Actions: Belgian prosecutors have launched a judicial inquiry into money laundering activities targeting the Belgian branch of Worldline.

The report highlights:

Using internal documents, interviews and digital forensics, TBIJ, with ITV News, the Netherlands’ NRC, Germany’s Der Spiegel and Denmark’s Politiken, can reveal:

• The car park scam is part of an international fraud network centring around a business in Dubai
• The operation uses shell companies in the UK and Cyprus to extract cash from targets around the world.
• At the heart of the network is a millionaire with a mansion in Ibiza and business links to the UK
• The transactions were facilitated by the multinational payment company Worldline, where there was evidence of an internal cover-up.

The scam network:

• Stretches from the UAE to the Philippines.
• And that trail begins with the website that tried to take his money: inn2flix.com.
• In the data, inn2flix.com is listed as part of Aether Group, a corporate group of over 1,000 websites and 300 companies using Worldline’s services as a “high-risk” client.

Aether Group + Worldline:

• With offices in Dubai, dozens of employees and thousands of websites, Aether’s infrastructure was considerable.
• But it couldn’t operate alone. That’s where one of the world’s biggest payment processing firms comes in.
• Worldline makes nearly £4bn in annual revenue for providing an inconspicuous, everyday service: facilitating card transactions.  
• It has handled millions of transactions for Aether Group – nearly £50m worth in a single year.
• And our investigation, which examined data about Worldline’s high-risk clients from 2023, shows how the company continued to facilitate the scams despite internal concerns.
• Internal reports show that a Worldline compliance unit ignored the huge risks attached to Aether, and that a company risk team sought to reduce fraud, only to be overruled.
• The reports suggest that the source of the problem lies with Worldline’s close relationship with another PSP based in the UK, called eMerchantPay, which also specialises in high-risk merchants like Aether Group.
• From 2014, Aether agreed to refer its clients to Worldline, and documents show that the arrangement was incredibly lucrative.

Aether Group

• To the outside world, Aether is a consultancy that helps clients gain exposure through its expertise in digital advertising and “omnichannel marketing.”
• However, internal documents and our digital forensics investigation show that Aether forms a central node in a multimillion-pound scam operation, the trading name for a cluster of entities based in the UAE, the Netherlands and the Philippines.
• The “clients” it boasts of are websites and shell companies set up on Aether’s behalf.

The man at the top:

• But who exactly is behind Aether? Throughout THE investigation, one figure came up time and time again: a man called Kristian Møller.
• Møller told us he categorically denies any suggestion of unlawful or fraudulent conduct, and business dealings have always complied with all applicable laws.
• But internet records and public sources show how his operations evolved from porn sites to eventually founding Linkmedia.
• Originally from Denmark, 40-year-old Møller has a limited online presence. He is based in Dubai but owns a multimillion-pound mansion in Ibiza.
• The property is owned via a holding company in the UK. Companies House also lists him as the owner and director of a now-defunct entity called Burlington Ad Factory (formerly AdBaum Interactive) and co-owner of a third company, AdBaum Advertising.
• Using website registration records, we linked AdBaum to numerous porn, prize-draw and customer support sites created as early as 2008. Some were initially registered in Møller’s name.
• Several of these websites contain references to – and share a digital footprint with – another set of scam websites set up around 2011.
• This new iteration of Møller’s empire targeted consumers in Scandinavia.
• It included jukebux.com, owned by Janibank Investment Ltd. This Cyprus-based company was subject to a 2015 warning by the Cypriot financial regulator saying it was not permitted to operate in the country.
• Further analysis by TBIJ found that jukebux.com shared digital infrastructure with similar dubious websites, which overlap with some of the earliest Aether Group scam sites found in the Worldline data, starting around 2015.
• A year after the regulator’s investor warning, Linkmedia, the forerunner to Aether Group, came into being. Its owner is Kristian Møller.

UK-CYPRUS SHELL COMPANIES

• The Aether-linked websites are owned by hundreds of letterbox companies based in the UK or Cyprus.
• The owners and directors of these companies appear to be nominees, scattered across the country with no evident pattern.

READ THE WHOLE REPORT:

https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025-06-27/revealed-global-crime-network-behind-qr-code-car-park-scam

Other sources:

• Scammed by your neighbour's company: How UK homes are fronts for ... - ITVX https://www.itv.com/news/2025-06-27/scammed-by-your-neighbours-firm-how-homes-are-fronts-for-global-scam-network
• Belgian prosecutors launch fraud probe into French company's local branch https://www.brusselstimes.com/1648165/belgian-prosecutors-launch-fraud-probe-into-french-companys-local-branch