In the province of Foggia, two cases of elderly people defrauded by a gang based in Campania were recordedwhich, in a four-month period, committed 40 scams in three regions.
In Naples, the carabinieri of the Operational and Radiomobile Unit of the Osimo Company (Ancona), in collaboration with colleagues from the Naples-Centro and Naples-Bagnoli Companies, carried out a precautionary custody order in prison issued by the investigating judge of the Court of Ancona, at the request of the local Public Prosecutor’s Office, against a 38-year-old and a 45-year-old, both from Campania, accused of continued aggravated fraud against elderly people. The two, already known to the police, were transferred to the Poggioreale prison.
The investigations by the Osimo carabinieri began in November 2023, following the report of a scam suffered by an 83-year-old woman. The victim had handed over jewels worth 500 euros, believing he was paying an administrative fine for an alleged traffic violation committed by his nephew.
Starting from this episode, investigators discovered that the two accomplices were responsible for 40 scams – 37 committed and 3 attempted – against elderly people, mainly women who lived alone. In Capitanata, they acted in Manfredonia.
Their modus operandi was always the same: an accomplice, operating from Naples, contacted the victims on a landline, introducing himself as a police marshal, financier or postal employee, and convinced them to deliver money or jewels to a colleague for phantom bureaucratic procedures , legal costs or compensation for road accidents that never occurred.
The two arrested had the task of going to the victims’ homes to collect the sums of money or jewels. While one acted as driver and lookout, the other physically collected the goods and then they disappeared.
Investigations are still ongoing to identify the accomplices who made the calls, using different SIM cards every day, registered to non-existent or unaware people, and convincing the victims to provide their mobile number, and then blocking them from further conversations, making it impossible for a few minutes any other communication. The total value of the sums stolen is around 200 thousand euros and is not covered by insurance.
For their trips from Campania, the gang used different vehicles, mainly large rented cars.
The forty contested crimes were committed in the Marche, Abruzzo and Puglia regions, with seventeen scams taking place in the province of Ancona alone.
FoggiaToday.it reports it.
