"Hello mom" trick

Clever woman cleverly lured fraudsters into a trap

Fraudsters wanted to cash in on a woman with the "hello mom" trick. But the "victim" was smarter.

(Bild: terovesalainen - stock.adobe.com)

The number of crimes in Burgenland has risen again since the end of the coronavirus crisis. Excluding smuggling, the police had to deal with 10,521 reports last year. Spectacular cases stand out from the current figures.

"Burgenland is one of the safest federal states," says Major General Werner Fasching, Deputy Provincial Police Director. The official figures prove him right. 13,575 crimes were reported in 2023, of which 3054 were for smuggling. That is a total of just 2.6 percent in the Austrian statistics.

Mixed feelings
Major General Fasching sees the current development with "one laughing and one crying eye". On the one hand, reports fell by 18% compared to 2022 thanks to a decline in smuggling crime, while on the other hand other offenses recorded significant increases in some cases.

More crimes
The number of violent crimes rose from 1,344 to 1,408 and property crime from 2,555 to 3,408 reports. The number of burglaries in apartments and houses increased from 99 to 137. There were also more bicycle thefts (482), shoplifting (570) and white-collar crime (2158). In the latter category, 1574 cases were frauds . 

Gangs from abroad
Crime tourists are responsible for the increase in offenses since the end of the coronavirus crisis. Crimes such as thefts in large shopping centers are mostly committed by traveling groups of criminals from neighboring countries. "After the pandemic, they have a free ride again," says one investigator.

Fighting the cyber criminals
In contrast to the trend in Austria, the rise in cybercrime offenses in Burgenland has been halted. The number of reported cases fell slightly by 0.3 percent from 1305 to 1301 offenses. The clearance rate is an impressive 35.4 percent. 

The crime statistics are a mandate for us to continue on our successful path of cooperation with the population and to expand prevention.

Thomas Fasching, stellvertretender Leiter des Landeskriminalamts

Bild: Schulter Christian

Spectacular cases
The police are achieving success in their prevention work. The best example is a woman from Burgenland who tricked fraudsters. "Hi mom, I have a new cell phone number. Please send me money quickly, I have an emergency," the perpetrators wrote to her and demanded 86,000 euros. The "victim" has no daughter, but kept in touch with the criminals - investigators were able to arrest the three Polish masterminds!