The accident scam, an 80-year-old woman in the net. “Your son had an accident, we need money to free him”. This is how a self-styled Carabinieri marshal deceived an elderly woman from Monopoli who, not having any cash at home, gave the impostor two gold necklaces. The intended victim, a resident of Via Lepanto, saw a Carabiniere burst into her home and tell the elderly woman that her son, of whom he offered details that confirmed his knowledge, had been in a road accident with injuries. The scammer, taking advantage of the elderly woman’s emotionality and her boasted role as a soldier of the Carabinieri, asked the woman to pay a sum necessary to avoid legal problems for her son as well as avoid a phantom “kidnapping”. The 80-year-old, taken by surprise and worried about the fate of her son, not having any cash, gave the scammer some gold jewelry that she had at home. The man disappeared without a trace. Only later, after contacting her son to check on his condition, did the old woman understand that she had fallen into the clutches of a scoundrel. Her son then called the Carabinieri, the real ones, who listened to the old woman in search of details that could lead to the identification of the scammer. The cameras along the street of the woman’s home are being scanned in order to find elements useful for identifying the scammer.
