Of
Martin Bernstein
The shock call goes around. Brazen telephone scammers are currently increasingly targeting older residents of Munich. The twist: on the phone, a tearful voice that can hardly be understood, allegedly the daughter, the son or the granddaughter, a strict alleged police officer who reports on a bad accident that the caller caused and in which a person was seriously injured or killed and an equally bogus public prosecutor who confirms the facts and demands an exorbitant sum of money as bail for the release of the caller.
In two such cases in the past few weeks, two Munich residents, each more than 70 years old, were persuaded by frightening and manipulative conversations to hand over high five-digit sums of cash to unknown collectors, as well as jewelry and gold coins.
The investigators from the “Phenomena” working group of the Munich criminal police were able to obtain concrete information about a suspect who was initially in Poland. On Tuesday, he returned to Germany with other suspects and, according to initial findings, was ready to be picked up again in Nuremberg.
Before the money could be handed over again, a 26-year-old and a 34-year-old, both without permanent residence in Germany, were arrested. The responsible investigating judge issued a pre-trial arrest warrant against the two suspects on Wednesday.