LECCE – She was about to be robbed of money and jewels but one of her sons just had time to get back into the house and foil the scam. The victim was an elderly woman from Lecce. Yesterday morning, agents of the Flying Squad and police officers on duty at the Police Headquarters arrested, in flagrante delicto, for ‘aggravated fraud’, a 28-year-old from the province of Naples who, with the tried and tested expedient of the fake emergency call from of alleged representatives of the police to elderly people, was about to come into possession of money and jewels of a 94-year-old lady.
The agents were alerted by the operations center which, in a short period of time, received several reports of alleged scams taking place in Lecce by self-styled carabinieri. A clue that scammers were at work in the area. The operations room sent the agents to the site of the last report received from the son of a 94-year-old, who, providentially returning early from his commitments, had found his mother standing behind the door of the house and holding cash and jewels. The woman, surprised to see him at home, asked for information about the man’s brother and explained that, shortly before, she had been contacted by a policeman who had informed her that her two children were both in the barracks because one of the two was was arrested following a serious accident and would have to pay a certain sum to “resolve the situation”. The unknown and elusive soldier had then invited her to gather together all the money and jewels she had at home immediately and deliver them to a ‘colleague’ who would come to collect them shortly thereafter.
The son, realizing that his mother was the victim of a scam, called 112 (New single emergency number). Patrols were sent in telephone contact with the victim’s son. So the alleged scammer was caught just as he was on his way to the woman’s house to withdraw the proceeds of the scam. The man was arrested. The agents later acquired further information from another possible victim who had reported a scam attempt on the same morning, finding the same way of acting, that is, a call from a man posing as a police sergeant who informed her of a bad accident involving an eight-year-old girl involving her son and that to “resolve the matter” she needed to pay the sum of 4,800 euros or hand over the family jewels. Fortunately, her daughter was present in the house with the elderly lady and, having guessed the scam attempt, immediately called 112.
