Since dawn, by delegation from the Rome Prosecutor’s Office, the Carabinieri of the Rome Provincial Command, in the province of Naples, supported by the territorially competent Carabinieri commands, have carried out precautionary measures, issued by the Rome investigating judge, against 17 people ( 7 in prison and 10 under house arrest), of which 13 are suspected of belonging to an organization dedicated to fraud and extortion against the elderly and the other 4 of having helped them carry out the attacks. The ‘central’ was in Naples, the victims were lured with telephone calls, the scammers reached them in Rome and other cities in rental cars.
During the searches, which are still ongoing, the Carabinieri also found an instruction manual with a detailed description of the things the telephone operator had to say to the victims to carry out the scams as well as cash, hundreds of telephone cards, dozens of mobile phones and a large quantity of jewellery. It should be noted that the proceeding is in the preliminary investigation phase, therefore the suspects are to be considered innocent until a possible final sentence.
Video Fraud targeting the elderly, ‘central’ in Naples: 17 precautionary measures
As a confirmation, during the investigation, the Carabinieri also carried out 10 arrests, in flagrante delicto, for scams committed in Rome against the elderly, with the simultaneous recovery and return of the stolen goods. This was announced in a press release from the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri of Rome. In particular, the investigations by the Carabinieri of the Operational Unit of the Compagnia di Roma Trionfale, under the direction of the Rome Prosecutor’s Office, serious crimes against property and narcotics group, have made it possible to collect serious circumstantial elements regarding the existence of an association for crime based in Naples and headed by members of a specific family, dedicated to the commission of an indeterminate series of crimes (mostly scams and sometimes extortion) against elderly people living in Rome and Lazio, but also in other regions Italian authorities, collecting serious indications of guilt against the suspects in relation to 80 episodes committed in the provinces of Rome, Naples, Latina and Viterbo, in the period between September 2022 and March 2023.
Posing as a postal worker, insurer, lawyer or policeman, the “telephone operator” said that a family member had to pay off the debt to collect a package or that he had caused a road accident, that the insurance had expired and that, to “sort things out” , it was necessary to hand over money or jewelry. An accomplice would later pick them up from the victims’ homes, and only hours later, speaking with the son or grandson in question, would they discover the scam. The Carabinieri’s investigations made it possible to collect circumstantial elements regarding the role of all the suspects who, in various groups made up of two people, left Naples every day in rented cars. The victims were randomly chosen through searches done on the internet or on the white pages, contacted by “telephone operators” and then reached by “couriers”.
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