The police in Bavaria are currently warning of fraudulent calls. Most commonly, family emergencies are feigned, including asking bail for family members who are said to be in prison. Pensioner Marianne B. was the victim of such a call.
Shortly after the news, Marianne B’s phone rang. A man answered and introduced himself as a police officer. “Your daughter is sitting next to me. She caused a serious traffic accident in which a child died,” he explains to the 80-year-old. “She must now go to jail for this, unless she can pay bail immediately.” He demanded 10,000 euros.
“I was terribly frightened, my heart began to race, I was shaking all over, I was about to have a heart attack,” Marianne B. describes her shock to FOCUS Online. “Especially because in the background the voice of a young woman could be heard crying hysterically and sobbing ‘Mom, Mom, help me’ over and over again.” She actually thought at first that it would be her daughter Clara .
However, she was then irritated by the fact that the alleged police officer spoke broken German on the phone. At the same time, her husband called the daughter on his cell phone and when Clara answered, it was clear to everyone that it was a scam call.
“I told the caller straight away that he was a scammer and that my husband was going to call the police.” The man then sent another threat. “He said I would see what happened tonight.” She spent the following night full of fear and terror with the shutters pulled down, according to Marianne B.
“The ‘deposit’ scam is currently being used frequently,” explained Karl-Heinz Busch, criminal police consultant at the Oberbayern Süd police headquarters, to “OVB Online”. Most of the time, the scammers would look for their victims in the phone book, the expert continued Old first names kept an eye out. Three- or four-digit phone numbers are often a sure sign that an older person is hiding behind them. “That’s my target group, they’re the ones I call,” Busch is quoted as saying.
He advises those affected not to let themselves be put under pressure and simply hang up. “The police never ask for cash, bank transfers or valuables from you,” says Busch. In addition, you should never call back using the number displayed on the phone, but instead call the emergency number 110 and report every fraudulent call to the police. Marianne B. also informed the police after this shock call.
