High loss

80-year-old fell for “fake policeman” scam

Symbolic image

(Bild: APA/dpa/Jan-Philipp Strobel)

A pensioner from Pinzgau fell victim to fraudsters. The strangers pretended to be police officers and demanded a five-figure sum of money from the 80-year-old woman. The woman paid the money...

An 80-year-old pensioner from Pinzgau received a call yesterday, Friday, in the afternoon hours from a previously unknown perpetrator who claimed to be a "German street policeman". Allegedly, the pensioner's son had caused a traffic accident in Germany resulting in death. In order to obtain her release from custody, the unknown perpetrator demanded that the woman from Pinzgau pay a five-figure sum.

The unidentified man also told the 80-year-old victim that he would send a messenger to collect the money. However, the police report that the pensioner was expressly forbidden to contact her son in the meantime.

Five-figure sum gone
A short time later, the victim was contacted with a suppressed number by a supposed lawyer, who instructed the 80-year-old to hand over the requested amount in an envelope to the messenger, who appeared during the phone call and took the money without saying a word. The woman suffered a loss in the low five-digit euro range as a result.

According to the victim's description, the messenger was of domestic origin, male, about 30 years old, about 180 cm tall, dark-haired and slim and was wearing a black hooded sweater.

The woman from Pinzgau was presented with photos of suspicious persons in the course of filing the report. However, no matches could be found with the person of the messenger.