Phone Scammers Target Children and the Elderly

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Police in north-western Athens have broken up a phone scam gang that allegedly took cash and valuables worth €800,000 from elderly people and children in a few weeks.

Officers arrested eight people on Friday in a raid on a call centre in the suburb of Ano Liosia, police said. They believe the gang phoned its victims from there.

Scams like these remain common and effective, despite hundreds of arrests and repeated public warnings. As a result, authorities plan new, tougher laws aimed at this kind of crime.

The suspects posed as accountants or as staff from electricity and phone companies, police said. They then made up stories, telling victims they had faulty wiring or needed to file extra tax returns.

How the phone scam gang worked

Once victims believed the story, the callers talked them into packing up cash and valuables kept at home. Some left the packages outside, while others left them inside and kept the front door open.

Other gang members then drove by and collected the packages, according to police.

In one case, gang members got a ten-year-old boy in the suburb of Petroupoli to hand over jewellery worth €10,000. Officers recovered the jewellery during the raid.

Family members among suspects

Police said many members of the phone scam gang belong to the same family. They believe the group carried out at least 22 scams since 1 September.

During that time, the gang regularly changed both its phone numbers and the places it called from, police said.

The phone scam gang case follows other recent arrests. In September, police broke up a voice-cloning scam ring accused of a €1 million fraud.

Police advise people to report suspicious calls through the Hellenic Police and to the Cyber Crime Division.

Source: Kathimerini

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