Pella: 15,000 euros in a telephone scam

An elderly woman in Pella lost 15,000 euros in cash and three gold sovereigns after a telephone scam, according to a Hellenic Police announcement reported by newsit.gr. As the authorities describe it, on the afternoon of Tuesday 18 August the elderly woman first received a threatening phone call. Immediately afterwards she was contacted by a woman who is alleged to have posed as a police officer and to have claimed that she wanted to protect her from criminals threatening members of the public. On that pretext, according to the police, she persuaded her to gather up all the money she had at home and hand it over to an accomplice, who called at the house and collected it.

The following day, Wednesday 19 August, officers of the Edessa Crime Prevention and Detection Unit arrested a man who is charged with being the person who collected the money. In his possession, 930 euros and a mobile phone were found and seized, while his car was also seized as a means of committing the act. A case file was drawn up against him and he was expected to be brought before the Public Prosecutor of the Edessa Court of First Instance. The woman who is alleged to have posed as a police officer is being sought, as are the remaining accomplices. The investigation continues both into identifying them and into whether they are involved in other similar cases.

The pattern described is familiar to the police authorities and is repeated with small variations across the country. The first call creates fear, the second offers a way out and a source of trust, usually by invoking an official capacity, and the handover of the money takes place within a few hours, before the victim has time to contact a relative. The target is almost always elderly people who live alone and keep cash or valuables at home, a common practice in the Greek provinces. The perpetrators organise themselves into groups with distinct roles, since one person makes the call and another handles the collection, which makes detection harder. The seizure of the vehicle as a means of committing the act, along with the mobile phone, shows that the authorities are seeking to reconstruct the group’s movements and communications. Cases of this kind are usually solved only when the person who collected the money is identified, since the calls are made from numbers that lead nowhere.

The Hellenic Police advises the public not to trust strangers who telephone claiming various capacities, not to disclose whether they keep money or valuables at home and to inform the authorities immediately even in the case of a simple attempted deception. It is a reminder that no police service asks members of the public to gather up money or to hand it to a third person. The man arrested is presumed innocent until judged by a court. Property crimes involving organised groups have also occupied other areas recently, as in Rhodes with the solving of a safe theft in Faliraki.