The Munich police have achieved a remarkable success against organized crime: Last Wednesday, forces from the Phenomena Working Group arrested a 44-year-old Turkish citizen against whom an arrest warrant had been issued on suspicion of commercial and gang-like call center fraud. The man is assigned to the higher management level of his organization. It operates from Turkey in a way that is categorized here under the term “fake police officers”. The real police officers of the Munich Kripo now attacked in Augsburg, supported by colleagues there.
This was preceded by months of investigations by the Phenomena Working Group, which was set up specifically for this form of crime. The collected so much evidence and evidence that the public prosecutor’s office in Munich I now blames the suspect for involvement in at least 350 attempted and completed acts. They were perpetrated in the greater Munich and Augsburg areas, but also throughout Bavaria and Germany; the cases extend over a period of two to three years. The man is said to have been active in his profession for a long time, he is described as a professional criminal.
The scam that alleged police officers take mainly older people out of money and valuables is not new – but the number of crimes has increased significantly in recent times. The fraudsters always work according to the same, long-known scheme: They call their victims from call centers in Turkey, pretend to be policemen, and pretend that the people called are the target of burglars and therefore their cash and theirs Have to bring valuables to a safe place. The aim is for the seniors to entrust their valuables to another supposed police officer.
In industry jargon, these accomplices are called “collectors”, they are basically the gang’s errand boys. At the next level up, “logisticians” who are familiar with the area organize the collection of the loot and its onward transport by “couriers” to Turkey. This is where the executive suite is located, and there are also the “boars” who make up to 100 calls a day.
The 44-year-old who has now been arrested is said to be a “precursor” – someone who makes the first call, initiates the conversation and then leaves the further conversation to his henchmen. The perpetrators at this level of the hierarchy basically do not have to be in Germany – what the 44-year-old wanted here is still being determined, as is the question of whether he has roots in Germany. In any case, he does not have a permanent residence here, it was said that he was last in Turkey. His arrest was “a result of the excellent cooperation with the Turkish investigators,” said a police spokesman on Monday: “This gave us the knowledge that and where the suspect is in Germany and we were able to arrest him specifically.”
As part of the cooperation with the Turkish authorities, two large call centers were demolished in Izmir last year; the second time it was accessed in December there had been more than 30 arrests. It was not yet possible to find out from which city the now arrested Turk ran his criminal business.
While the gang in Izmir is being tried, the investigators in this country recently caught a “somewhat thicker fish”, as it was called at the time. Most of the time, only the foot soldiers are caught, a local picker or driver. But at the beginning of July, the police arrested a 53-year-old from the Rottal-Inn district in the north of Munich, who, according to investigations, was involved in almost 30 cases as a logistician. Most recently in June he helped to relieve a man over 80 years old and later a woman of the same age by tens of thousands of euros. Five-digit cash amounts were seized from the suspect himself as well as in his apartment after the arrest – pocket money in an expanding business.
Compared to 2019, the number of attempted frauds involving false police officers almost doubled last year, from 3,215 to 6,113. The actual successful acts also increased, from 33 to 51. Although not even every 100th call was successful is, it is worth the effort for the criminals. The total damage increased from 2.27 million euros in 2019 to 4.26 million; on average, the loot in individual cases was 73,000 or 83,500 euros. These high sums result from the fact that sometimes even larger six-figure amounts are involved, not always in the form of cash, but often also in the form of jewelry, gold bars or other valuables.