Because he was in financial difficulties, a 35-year-old looked for work on an online classifieds platform. The man found what he was looking for, but now has even more financial problems – and even has to go to prison. For two and a half years. What the man, who has now been convicted by the Munich District Court, did not initially know was that the people whose ad he had responded to were criminals.
Their scam are so-called shock calls. Although he actually wanted to do honest work, as the 35-year-old credibly assured the court, he accepted the job that was offered. It consisted of picking up the loot, which the gang shocked their victims with, at their front door. Once things went well for the defendant.
In July last year, a woman who is a member of the gang called a 75-year-old and introduced herself as an employee of the Munich I public prosecutor’s office. Police investigators have not yet found who the caller was. The stranger dished up a lie to the elderly woman on the phone. Accordingly, their daughter caused a traffic accident in which a mother of two children died. In order to prevent her daughter from going to jail immediately, she was asked to pay bail. The 75-year-old then withdrew 45,800 euros from her account. The accused took the money from the woman and handed it over to the backers of the gang. The 35-year-old received just 200 euros from the loot.
A few weeks later, the gang tried the same scam with a 70-year-old woman. But the woman saw through the plan and called the police. When the accused wanted to collect 57,000 euros from her, he was arrested by the officers.
The district court convicted the 35-year-old of commercial and attempted commercial gang fraud. Since so-called shock calls keep robbing people of their savings, such acts must be “impressively punished,” according to the verdict. In addition, the court ordered that the man must compensate the damage incurred in the amount of 45,800 euros.