The prisoners maintained close contact with women on the Tinder dating platform. She was able to wrap four of her acquaintances around her finger. The 36-year-old and the 45-year-old pretended to be in love with their victims between the ages of 26 and 31. But they were honest about one thing: according to the police, they had told the women about their prison life. Their imprisonment apparently served them as a means to an end: First they asked the women for small favors in the form of phone cards, small transfers and vouchers. After they succeeded in doing this, they demanded more and more.
They made the lovers believe they needed “protection money” because they had arguments with other prisoners. The fraudsters also said that an operation was imminent after an alleged fight. As time went on, men took it to extremes. “They tried to cover up the financial damage by temporarily sending the victims money from other victims so that they could lose track of their account transactions,” said the state police department on Thursday. The men lied that they were wealthy and would pay back the money after they were released. They gambled away the money on online betting portals. Another part of the money went to relatives who smuggled cell phones into the prison for the scammers.
As if that were not enough, there was also blackmail. One of the victims was contacted by a strange man after he lost contact. He is said to have forced her to contact the prisoner again, otherwise intimate photos and videos would be sent to relatives. Detectives from the Suben police uncovered the fraud after months of investigation. The men had deliberately worked together to get money from Tinder acquaintances. For fear of the criminals, some of the victims even moved or changed their job and telephone number, the police said.
Source: Nachrichten
