Instances of fraud come in many shapes and forms. They range from so-called phishing attacks targeting sensitive data via text messages and emails to impostors posing as police officers or municipal agents on the phone or in person.
In conversation with RTL, chief of the police’s property crime department Marc Wagner also identified shock calls as a more recent threat: “They are all about creating a stressful situation for elderly people and inciting them to hand over jewellery or money to allegedly help an acquaintance in need or to protect themselves against criminals.”
In these cases, perpetrators pretend to be family members and create fictional emergencies, such as severe accidents or cases of imprisonment, in order to lure their victims into handing over money.
Victims are put under great psychological and time pressure so they do not have an opportunity to clearly think matters through. They are also often told not to inform anyone else about the supposed emergency so that friends and relatives have no chance to help.
While some people are convinced that they will never fall for such a scam, caution is still needed. “Perpetrators can be very skillful on a psychological level, which means that even people who know about their ways can become victims due to the stressful situation that they created”, explains Wagner.
People who have fallen for a scam and handed over sensitive information are advised to contact their bank right away so that potential transactions can be blocked.
Wagner noted that the first 48 hours are of crucial importance and that it is often too late after a longer period of time: “If you don’t [alert your bank], the money makes its way to a country via transactions where we no longer have access.”
Victims should also contact the police as soon as possible and provide, if possible, bank statements and screen shots of messages they received.
In case of a shock call, people are advised to refrain from engaging and hang up the phone.
As the majority of scams are organised from abroad, it is often difficult to identify the perpetrator. It is mostly only intermediaries from lower parts of the hierarchy who end up being caught.
Wagner elaborated: "[Scams] are often organised on various levels, meaning those who create the set-up are somewhere abroad. They take care of logistics and send their people out into the field. Those are the ones we catch as they are in direct contact with the victim.”
Even if police are able to occasionally carry out a successful arrest, often in collaboration with Europol, the stolen money is rarely recovered.
Although in theory everyone can become the victim of a scam regardless of their age, it is often elderly people who end up falling victim.
The Ministry for Family Affairs therefore recently relaunched one of its safety campaigns under the slogan ‘Dear grandma, dear granddad, don’t let yourself be fooled!’. Wagner stressed that young people should remember to regularly warn their grandparents and parents about the dangers of online scams.
