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Scammer on the phone: Klagenfurt woman loses tens of thousands of euros!
A 65-year-old woman from Klagenfurt falls victim to a telephone scam and hands over cash to alleged perpetrators. Police are investigating.
Scammer on the phone: Klagenfurt woman loses tens of thousands of euros!
In Klagenfurt, a 65-year-old woman fell victim to a perfidious telephone scam. The day before, around 4 p.m., she received a call from an unknown number. The caller identified himself as a police officer and claimed that her daughter was in custody after an accident. In order to get her daughter released, the woman had to pay tens of thousands of euros. This blatant lie kept the woman trapped on the phone until around 11:45 p.m. and put a massive strain on her, as [meinkreis.at](https://www.meinbezirk.at/ Klagefurt/c-lokales/polizeitrick-kostete- Klagefurterin-hohe-sum_a7668574) reports.
The woman was put under pressure for almost eight hours until she finally gave in. With the requested amount of cash, she set off for Klagenfurt to hand over the money. Around midnight she met in a parking lot with a young woman who was the recipient of the money. She was described as being around 20 years old, short, slightly chubby and with black hair tied in a braid. The unknown woman was carrying a white handbag, glasses and a black jacket.
A shocking ending
It was only some time after handing over the money, around 12:30 a.m., that the woman contacted her daughter and discovered that she had fallen for a fraudster. It was then that she realized she had been scammed, which led to a quick trip to the police to file a report. Unfortunately, the fraudsters had already disappeared by the time they called the police and have not yet been caught Small newspaper supplemented.
Unfortunately, this type of fraud is not an isolated case. According to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), telephone fraudsters use targeted strategies to put pressure on mostly older people. The perpetrators often pose as police officers or relatives in order to inspire trust. The manipulated calls also include methods such as bail fraud, which were used in the current case. Together with an evaluation team, the BKA has been fighting against such cases of fraud since the summer of 2021 and is analyzing cross-state phenomena in this area, as bmi.gv.at explains.
Prevention is important
In order to reduce the risk for citizens, banks and authorities rely on information. Important prevention measures include ending pressured calls immediately, not handing over money or valuables without checking the caller first, and when in doubt, calling back numbers to known numbers. Sharing experiences and information about such scams within families is also crucial to protect older generations.
The Klagenfurt police have already started investigating. It is important that citizens report suspicious calls in order to protect others from similar experiences and to work together to stop the wave of telephone fraud.