Fraud on a grand scale

Victims conned out of millions with “police trick”

Disguised as fake police officers, fraudsters usually deprive elderly people of their entire assets (symbolic image).

(Bild: Evelyn Hronek/EVELYN HRONEK)

They were small fish in a big network: three young men were now on trial in St. Pölten for serious fraud. As part of a criminal organization, they had helped to scam huge sums of money by posing as fake police officers. Convicted!

"Oh, you remember me, that's good. Because I remember you too," said one of the victims when they met in the courtroom. It was thanks to him that the handcuffs clicked for three fraudsters in Tulln at the beginning of the year.

The 79-year-old was not fooled and lured the perpetrators into a trap. After an "Adam Stern" from Interpol contacted the pensioner by telephone to bring his valuables to safety because of an imminent burglary (an arrested gang of robbers would have provided evidence), the man acted in the right way.

The men were put on trial at St. Pölten Provincial Court.

(Bild: P. Huber)

In order to clarify whether he had been the victim of a "fake call", the 79-year-old went to the nearest police station with all his belongings in his rucksack - jewelry, coins and money worth 100,000 euros. And thus saved himself and potential future victims from even more misfortune. Previously, the gang is said to have relieved senior citizens of tens of thousands of euros in Klosterneuburg and Waidhofen an der Ybbs.

"Call center" set up in Turkey
Disguised as fake police officers, the arrested trio had also helped to defraud pensioners in Lower Austria of their assets. As part of a large-scale criminal organization. The gang had scammed a total of 105 million euros across Europe from Turkey. The "big fish" have already been sentenced to a total of 1128 years in prison in their home country. One serious criminal alone received 400 years in prison there. "These are completely different sentences than in this country," says Mr. Rat.

The fraudsters pretend to be police officers. (symbolic image)

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

In St. Pölten, the young men (22, 24, 27) - two of whom had previous convictions - had to stand trial for aggravated fraud, the crime of criminal association and money laundering. All three pleaded guilty, even though, according to the defense, they only acted as "small cogs in a huge network": as money messengers, as intermediaries and as fake police officers. 

The youngest of them, for example, disguised himself as a plainclothes officer and took 20,000 euros from the safe in an 88-year-old woman's house "to safety", while another engaged her in a conversation over the phone. The 24-year-old, on the other hand, earned his living as a lookout - always on the lookout for the real police.

Trio sentenced to prison
The judge found that the 27-year-old had the most criminal energy: the repeat offender with a criminal record acted as an intermediary from prison and recruited new "members". The three were sentenced to between 15 months and three years (partly conditional) imprisonment.