23 thousand euros gave the old woman to phone scammers

Phone scams carried out by various experts in an attempt to deceive unsuspecting citizens and fraudulently take large sums of money from them have reached a new level.

In this case, we will talk about members of a criminal group operating in the northern suburbs of Attica and inflicting a “blow” mainly on the inhabitants of Kifisia, Ekali and Dionysos. Their target is the elderly. They are looking for those gullible people who, having heard sudden unpleasant news concerning a close relative, will succumb to the pressure of scammers and pay a large amount “to help a loved one” at the time of an alleged emergency that happened to him.

The police managed to obtain a recording of one of these telephone conversations, in which the fraudster, posing as an orthopedic surgeon, communicated with a resident of the northern suburbs of Athens. The perpetrator, posing as a medical specialist, stated that the daughter of an elderly woman “should be operated on immediately, and for this, 23,000 euros are immediately required to purchase some of the medical materials necessary for the operation.” The woman gave the money, and only then called the police. She provided a recording of the conversation as evidence.

However, there are too many scammers of this type. In particular, imaginary doctors who called an elderly resident of Patras managed to deceive her, receiving a total of 20,000 euros in February this year. In a telephone conversation that the criminals had with the old woman, under the pretext that her daughter needed an urgent operation, they managed to persuade her to give them a large sum of money.

According to information ethnos.gr, the criminals, showing their social sensitivity and not wanting to bother the elderly woman going up and down the stairs of the house, asked her to put the money in a bag and throw it from the balcony to a person who would come up and pick it up. The incident was reported to the police, and an investigation is underway to locate and apprehend those responsible.

As Russkiye Novosti wrote earlier, this type of fraud is thriving, despite the detention of criminals. More than 280,000 euros, gold coins and jewelry were fraudulently “extorted” by members of a criminal organization, mostly from elderly people, whom they called under the pretext that their relatives had been in a car accident or needed urgent surgery.

The Thessaloniki Police Department investigated numerous cases of deception of unsuspecting citizens that took place in October 2021. During the investigation, a 60-year-old foreigner was detained. Against her, as well as three other accomplices, a criminal case was initiated on the creation of a criminal organization and fraud.

What did the police investigation reveal?

Since mid-October 2021, criminals have united in a group and pretended to be doctors or law enforcement officers, choosing elderly people as their victims. Using “theatrical techniques” (dramatic voice, genuine sympathy, etc.), the attackers managed to overcome any doubt of citizens in order to get various amounts of money or valuables from them.

Using this method, the criminals managed to deceive the elderly in 18 cases recorded in Thessaloniki, Giannitsa, Kavala and Veria, and enriched themselves with a total of 286,400 euros, seized 49 gold sovereigns, as well as jewelry worth at least 20,000 euros.

During a search in the house of a 60-year-old woman, a resident of the Chalcedon district, nine mobile phones, 4 SIM cards, and some cash were found and confiscated. The detainee was delivered to the prosecutor’s office.

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