Fake investigation, fake barracks, fake telephone number, but real scam. So true that in Modena and its province there are already around ten cases of people who have been deceived and who have lost thousands of euros. But there are also those who, in the little theater staged by the scammers, manage to escape unscathed, as happened in recent days in San Cesario.
The scam
If you received a call from the police station, wouldn’t you trust it? This is the idea behind the latest scam invented by these criminal professionals. A call arrives on your phone and the incoming number is exactly that of one of the Army barracks near you.
It’s so realistic that you just need to take that number, enter it into the Google search engine to discover that yes, the person calling you is indeed a policeman. But no.
Somehow the field specialists manage to disguise the phone call.
The last case
It happened in recent days in San Cesario, where a Unicredit customer was the victim of the same attempt. Same scenario for him too, first the contact via a text message, then the call from the barracks. A call in which the victim is told to immediately go to their trusted branch to save their bank account from hackers who are trying to empty it. As? By making transfers worth thousands of euros to the trust accounts of the police who will take care of your money until they return it to you. And the last recommendation: don’t say anything to the bank employees, because they themselves could be the infamous hackers who are stealing your savings. And instead this customer from San Cesario, always keeping the phone call active, physically went to the bank and passed the receiver to the bank manager. The latter immediately understood that it was an attempted scam and when the scammer realized that things were getting complicated for him, he started making threats.
“Give me the client straight away and don’t interfere, I’m a policeman”, these are roughly the sentences uttered. Until she gave up and hung up.
Lost 22 thousand euros
If in San Cesario they left with empty pockets, the other day in Carpi the scammers got their money’s worth, managing to get 22 thousand euros from a hairdresser who, despite herself, remained trapped in the web.
They knew everything about her, they knew her telephone numbers, profession and other sensitive information which was useful to make everything much more credible. For example, knowing the woman’s profession, they invited her to justify one of the two transfers with the purchase of equipment for the shop. A total of 22 thousand euros divided into two instant transfers and therefore no longer cancelable. But the cases, as mentioned, are increasingly spreading in the province, so much so that there are already around ten. If you have the slightest doubt you need to do two things: either call the police (112) or even better, physically go to the nearest police station or to your local bank branch. In any case, never make transfers to accounts suggested over the phone. Neither the police nor the bank staff will ever invite you to carry out similar operations.
