Criminals rob people under the pretext of selling olive oil

Groups of scammers who, due to rising prices, have recently been involved in the trade of adulterated olive oil, find opportunities to “earn extra money” in every possible way, but end up in handcuffs.

Unsuspecting citizens not only buy vegetable oil of unknown quality, but also become victims of new fraud or theft by the same criminals who, visiting homes, choose where to “strike.”

In Greece there are already quite a few cases related to the sale of “leftist” olive oil, which are combined with other more serious criminal acts. Lawyer Antula Anasoglu, who has handled similar cases in the past, told iefimerida.gr how these schemes work.

“The trade in counterfeit oil is mainly carried out on a door-to-door basis and concerns mainly the periphery, rather than large cities. Often, criminals eavesdrop on conversations with potential buyers and observe elderly people who live alone in houses away from the city. This way they can learn about the owner’s financial situation and then return to commit other, more serious criminal acts,” Ms. Anasoglu said.

A typical case is that of a gang of five (Alexandria, Veria), who were involved in a case of continuous fraud against unsuspecting citizens of villages in the prefecture of Karditsa, in Farkadona and Elasson. The defendants initially engaged in the sale of olive oil in containers in order to identify potential victims.

The criminals sold oil of dubious quality at a low price in houses that are located on the outskirts (or isolated from the rest of the village settlement). The buyers who became victims of fraud were mainly elderly people.

Just as in the cases with false electricians, having entered the house under the pretext of selling “excellent oil,” some distracted the elderly, while others rummaged around the house and grabbed everything that was “badly lying.”

In another criminal case, this time in Xanthi, the attackers, who knew the victim because they sold her olive oil, managed to get a certain amount of money from her by saying that her son owed them. When they took the 350 euros, they did not hesitate to steal her jewelry, as well as the rest of the money found in the house.

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