Fraudsters cheated people in Bavaria out of millions last year with tricks like the grandson trick. Criminals stole 6.1 million euros in 2021 alone by posing as police officers. With the so-called grandchild trick, in which the fraudsters pretend to be relatives of their victims, there were another two million, as Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) said in Munich on Thursday.
According to him, the police registered 4168 so-called shock calls with a total damage of 3.7 million euros. The callers claim, for example, that a family member was involved in a serious accident and urgently needs money. “We are observing that criminals are specifically targeting the assets of older people,” said Eisenreich. The backers are usually based abroad, from which the fraud is orchestrated in large call centers.
An example of this is love scam, love fraud on online dating platforms, the modern form of marriage fraud. The consequences of these acts could be significant for the victims, Eisenreich emphasized – not only financially, but above all in terms of health: “There is a risk of anxiety and depression.” The minister is therefore calling for tougher penalties for those who specifically target older people: for cases of organized call center fraud, he proposes an increased minimum sentence of two years instead of the previous one year. “The age-related special vulnerability of seniors must be sufficiently taken into account in the penal code.”