Phone fraud in Dachau: 88-year-old woman loses €138,000 to fake police officers
Fraudsters posing as police officers deprived a pensioner from Dachau of cash and valuables worth a total of €138,000.
Fake police officers swindle €138,000 from Dachau pensioner
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, telephone fraudsters have deprived an 88-year-old pensioner from Dachau of savings totalling €138,000 – and subsequently plundered her son's bank safety deposit box.
On Wednesday morning, an unknown man called the pensioner and posed as a police officer. He told her that her house had come into the sights of burglars and that her property had been surveyed using a drone. Unsettled, the woman followed his instructions: she emptied her bank safety deposit box and deposited valuables and cash worth a total of €130,000 on a park bench in the Carl-Thiemann-Anlage in Dachau.
The following day, the perpetrators called again. This time they instructed the pensioner to also empty her son's safety deposit box and hand over the contents to a courier. The woman then left coins and €8,000 in cash near the Awo kindergarten in Dachau.
Later that same day, the fraudsters made contact a third time and instructed the pensioner to withdraw money from her bank account again. A vigilant bank employee recognised the scam and refused to process the withdrawal. Subsequent contact attempts by the perpetrators ceased. On Thursday, the 88-year-old filed a criminal complaint with Dachau police station.
The criminal police in Fürstenfeldbruck have opened an investigation. Witnesses who observed anything suspicious in the area of the crime scenes on Wednesday or Thursday morning are requested to contact 08141/612-0.
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung