The police keep giving information about the so-called grandchildren’s trick. Nevertheless, many fall for the scam every year. A modification of the trick is particularly tough.
Potsdam – “That’s pretty stupid. That wouldn’t happen to me. ”Jürgen Schirrmeister hears such sentences more often at his prevention events.
Schirrmeister sits in the police headquarters in Potsdam. He heads the prevention department there. A phenomenon that often occurs there: the grandchildren’s trick or “shock call”, as the investigators call the scam popular with fraudsters. The victims: According to the police, these are mainly elderly people. Many of them still fall for the scam after all.
With the grandchild trick or the “shock call”, fraudsters call unsuspecting people, pretend to be relatives or police officers and demand large sums of money – by transfer or cash to a handover person.
Significant increase in cases
The police registered 118 acts of fraud in 2020, as the Presidium in Potsdam announced on request. According to the authorities, the attempt remained in 95 cases. Nevertheless, the perpetrators captured around 540,000 euros.
In addition, there are 634 offenses with a damage amount of around 212,000 euros, which have not been recorded in the police crime statistics, since the crime scene or the place of action, i.e. the place where the perpetrator picks up the phone, could not be located in Brandenburg. That was 439 cases more than in 2019. The police speak of a “significant increase”.
The clearing-up rate: it is almost zero. “Once the money has been given or transferred, it is definitely lost,” says Schirrmeister. As a rule, the perpetrators acted in gangs. The callers are sitting in call centers from which they are calling. The numbers they dial often came from the phone book. They looked for older first names there. At the information events held by Schirrmeister and his colleagues, he therefore often asks: “Do you really still have to be in the phone book? Maybe at least the first name can get out? “
Police: Never transfer money to strangers
Schirrmeister also advises: “Don’t let the caller put you under pressure! If something seems strange to you, hang up! Call the police on 110 and do not use the callback function! Or call your allegedly troubled family members! Do not talk about your financial situation on the phone! And the most important thing: “Never give or transfer money to strangers!”
In addition to the information days at senior citizens’ associations, the police also inform bank employees about the fraud. You should be vigilant when elderly people withdraw large sums of money.
But there is another scam that worries Schirrmeister. The so-called love or romance scamming (in German about: “love or romance cheating”). Perpetrators pretend to be in love, send their victims pictures and nice words by message or on the phone for a while. In the end, those affected sit there alone, sometimes with a lot of money poorer.
Schirrmeister reports on a case in which a property purchase was planned. “It was about the future together in America. There were huge sums of money over the table. ”It wasn’t just the elderly who fell for the trick. “The great love is promised, that is emotionally an absolutely bad scam for the victims.” Dpa
