“Unfortunately, the perpetrators were very successful this week,” says Gerald Sakoparnig from the State Criminal Police Office. A Linzer and an Ennser had already fallen victim to fraudsters on Thursday. The next day, a 79-year-old woman from Linz was tricked with the same scam. It was early afternoon on August 19th when the lady received a call. A female voice could be heard. The caller introduced herself as a police officer and told the elderly woman, who lived alone, shocking news: “Your daughter caused a serious traffic accident,” said the stranger on the phone. One of the participants died in the accident, which is why the daughter would now be in custody. You can only be released with a five-digit bail.
How the scam was discovered
The bail trick is a well-known scam. But Upper Austrians fall for it again and again. How can that be? “The perpetrators are exerting massive pressure,” says Sakoparnig, who heads the fraud department at the LKA. As in the case of the 79-year-old woman from Linz, they panic their victims with so-called “shock calls”. “They can no longer think clearly in these situations. In retrospect, the victims then often remember that they knew about the cases of fraud from the news anyway,” says the investigator.
The woman from Linz only noticed the fraud when it was already too late. After the call, a woman came by to collect the supposed deposit – gold bars, jewelry and cash – from the pensioner. She handed the fraudster around 30,000 euros in cash, and the items are likely to be worth another 70,000 euros. A little later, the 79-year-old accidentally received a call from her daughter. It turned out that she was never in an emergency situation.
Victims are chosen by their first names
The lady reported the incident to the police. And she is not the only victim: the day before, scammers were also successful in Linz and in Enns (Linz-Land district). It is unclear whether these are the same perpetrators. One thing is certain: In both cases, too, a high level of damage was incurred. The State Criminal Police Office estimates that the victims each lost 50,000 euros.
According to Sakoparnig, the perpetrators are trying their luck with numbers that are based on older first names. “They tend to look for an Adelheid, a Gerlinde or a Maria. More modern names are not as endangered,” he says. Since the tricksters are targeting older people, they should report to the younger generation in the event of a “shock call”.
“Imaginative” offenders
In addition to the bail trick, the “imaginative” perpetrators, according to Sakoparnig, keep coming up with new tricks. At the beginning of August, a widow from Wels was made to believe that armed criminals were in her neighborhood. For her own safety, she should immediately put all valuables outside the door. Completely frightened, the woman complied with the request – and lost almost half a million euros. The OÖN reported:
The brazen tricks
Bank advisors are also playing an unintended role more and more frequently. “Victims receive a message on the phone not to respond to bank employees’ questions when withdrawing cash,” says Gerald Sakoparnig from the State Criminal Police Office. Now the consultants are made aware of cases of fraud, announces Herbert Walzhofer, director of the Sparkasse Oberösterreich. More on that in this report.
Source: Nachrichten
