Caught at three-and-sixty, he lost three-and-fifty. Money, cash, 350 euros. He had just left the Milan branch of Crédit Agricole in viale Giovanni da Cermenate, Roberto M. aged 85, perhaps “baptized” at that very moment by the fraudster-spy who imagined him fresh from the withdrawal, the ideal victim in the meantime getting back into his Toyota C-Hr. From here it started, last March, a sophisticated machination, with the cheater tailing him in a blue Fiat Panda, ready to strike. And indeed «boom», Roberto hears a noise, «like a bump on the bodywork as I turned into via Pezzotti, but I didn’t think I had hit another car, so I continued to the newsagent to buy the newspaper.” The stranger immediately joins him, gesticulates, shouts, accuses him of having rear-ended him, shows him the rear part of the Panda: «Which is actually damaged…». She already was. And that noise? “I think he rolled down the window and punched my side, which was higher.”
The script of the fake accident is well thought out and also acted by accomplicesbecause the devil is in the details, like the presence on the Panda of a woman and two children, a “family picture” that makes that man, “Italian with a Southern accent”, first and foremost a father, a husband. An agitated guy because, perhaps, he is in a hurry to take his children to school and therefore he cannot get lost in reasoning, let alone a friendly observation. And the victim lowers his guard. To make the elderly Milanese take the bait completely, «but despite my age I consider myself smart, I still play bridge and golf», I am some blue marks (the same color as the Panda) on the front bumper of his Toyota: «Who knows how they made them, when… But I was really stupid, the next day I filed a complaint for fraud, and if I now expose myself on the Courier it is to raise awareness among citizensbecause these people are skilled and have aggressive ways that arouse anxiety and confusion”.
We were talking about accomplices, a leap in quality compared to the better known but similar (in terms of dynamics) “mirror scam”. In this case the new actorthe one that must convince the victim to put his wallet in his hand immediately, because that is what is most convenient a self-styled traffic policeman who answers the scammer’s call on speakerphone. Mr. Roberto well remembers his words: «We don’t have time to go out, come to an agreement among yourselvesotherwise whoever caused the damage risks a fine of 490 euros and a deduction of 6 points from the driving licence”. Inventions. But here it is, the input, the economic threshold on which to negotiate.
Even the elderly man, a bridge enthusiast, tries to play a “card” to surprise the accuser with a small family spectator. «I suggest he go to my body shop to assess the damage. Obviously, lo and behold, he replies that your trusted workshop is closer, in via Lusitania. We reach her, but in my car, because he “just needs to show the photos” of the ruined part. Only he enters, in the bodywork that doesn’t actually exist, but I found out the next day, and when he comes out he’s even more furious: “To repair the car you need 700 euros. So, what do we do? I have no more time to waste.” As I take it back to the Panda, I give him everything I have in my wallet: 350 euros». End. Indeed there is still room for one last coup, which is a humiliation, the manifestation of the scam: «The man retrieves an anti-Covid mask and cleans the blue dye from my bumper, then disappears while the woman on the Panda with the children sets off again to recover it. I check the area of the hypothetical “failure” better, there wasn’t a scratch.”
