Five arrests over phone scams, including one worth €220,000
Five suspected members of two different gangs have been arrested in northern Greece over phone scams targeting vulnerable people that in one case netted more than €200,000-worth of loot, police said Friday.
The first two suspects, men aged 31and 21, also face charges of attempted murder after allegedly trying to run over officers with their car during their arrest on Thursday in Florina.
A police statement said they had previously talked an 89-year-old woman in the nearby Pella region into leaving 145 British gold sovereigns and several items of jewellery, collectively worth €220,000, in a package outside her home – which they promptly pocketed.
Earlier, they had taken jewellery and €3,000 in cash from a 65-year-old Florina resident.
In both cases, the scammers called up claiming to be accountants, told their victims that tax authorities wanted all valuables kept at home officially registered, and offered to do the job for them. They also tried the trick unsuccessfully on two other people, who alerted police.
In a separate case in Pella, police on Thursday arrested two men and a woman who had allegedly defrauded an elderly woman in the Drama area out of €200 in cash and an unspecified quantity of jewellery.
The scammers had claimed to be electricity company employees, informed their victim that she had a wiring fault and urged her to place any cash and jewellery she had at home outdoors to avoid the supposed risk of electrocution.
Kathimerini
