A con man was caught by the authorities after his target, a 95-year-old grandmother in Rahlstedt, Hamburg, notified police that there was a phone call asking him to hand over thousands of euros, according to a police report in Hamburg, Germany.
The retired grandmother on Tuesday (04 August) received a phone call from a woman who claimed to be her friend. The woman said she was in the hospital because she was infected with the coronavirus and desperately needed 30,000 euros or more than 500 million rupiahs for a ventilator.
The old woman quickly realized that the call she had just received was an attempt at fraud. He also played in the scammer scenario and said he would take 20,000 euros or around 345 million rupiahs from his savings in the bank.
Unbeknownst to the caller, the retiree then asked his assistant manager to alert the police. The policeman listened to the conversation on the phone and told him everything he needed to say to catch the conman.
The fraudster then asked for more money, and the grandmother promised to give him 11,000 euros. After the call ended, the grandmother then received more phone calls from a number of con artists who again asked for money.
From police, medical officers to fake bank employees
This incident prompted the Hamburg police to issue a warning about telephone fraud that is increasingly happening in Germany.
Not long after the first fraudulent call, a man pretending to be a policeman visited the grandmother’s house. The fake policeman admitted to being on patrol and asked if there were any police officers in the building where he lived.
‘Schneider’ – the name used by the fake policeman – told the grandmother he had received a warning from the bank about an attempt to withdraw a large amount of cash. To further scare the grandmother, the fake policeman said that an investigation might be carried out into the alleged tax violation.
Next, there was a call from someone claiming to be a bank employee, asking the 95-year-old retiree to confirm whether he had made a large transfer.
The real caller then called the old woman again and said staff from the hospital would come to her house to collect money. He told the grandmother to put the money in an envelope.
Not long ago special investigators who were on standby saw a man getting out of a taxi and walking towards the grandmother’s house.
As investigators watched, the old woman handed the man an envelope. Officers later arrested the man, a 47-year-old Slovak national. Further investigations are ongoing.
