The scam was similar for all four calls: A female caller contacted the elderly woman, introduced herself as a detective – sometimes with the name Schulz, sometimes with the name Schütt – and told them a made-up story about a burglary in the neighborhood.
Part of the Romanian group of perpetrators was caught, but other criminals are still at large. They are probably armed. There would also be a list on which the pensioner’s name or address would appear. This should be careful if you keep valuables or large sums of money at home.
Pensioners reacted correctly
In the case of the four women aged 88, 75, 72 and 69 who were called Friday morning, the scammers had no luck. All four became suspicious, discovered inconsistencies by cleverly asking questions and finally ended the conversation, the police said in a broadcast on Friday afternoon.
The four women reacted exactly right. “Every phone call in which money is demanded is fraud,” said Gerald Sakoparnig from the State Criminal Police Office recently in an OÖN interview. You should always “show a healthy dose of distrust” and hang up on a call of this type.
Welserin lost half a million euros
Only recently, a woman from Wels had lost her entire fortune to fraudsters who had unsettled her so much with a similar scam that the 65-year-old packed savings books, gold bars, jewelry and other items worth almost half a million euros in a sack and in front of her door where he was picked up by the criminal:
Source: Nachrichten
