Senior citizens are often called
As the perpetrators mainly target elderly people, we are asking their children and relatives in particular for help: please inform your parents or grandparents about the scam. But don't forget people living alone in your neighborhood! On our website bonn.polizei.nrw you will find tips on how to protect yourself from telephone scammers.
The crooks have been active nationwide with this trick for some time. In their calls, they pretend to be police officers from a local police station, detectives from the State Office of Criminal Investigation, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation or an investigative group of the criminal investigation department.
This perfidious approach is often supported by a technical trick: The display on the called party's phone often shows the local area code together with 110 or a local police station. This is intended to reinforce the claim that the callers are police officers.
Victims are talked into it
However, it is not police officers on the phone, but con artists. They claim, for example, that there has recently been an increase in burglaries in the area or that a note with the caller's address has been found on arrested thieves. Therefore, the cash or jewelry must be checked. This is followed by an offer to have the jewelry or cash picked up by a detective. They will take it to a safe place at the police station. Scammers have already made large sums of money using this approach, which puts victims in fear, partly because they follow up immediately and hardly give their victims a chance to think about the conversation.
If you receive such a call, the police recommend:
- Listen to the name, hang up, call your local police authority on 110 and describe the situation.
- Do not give unknown persons any information about your financial circumstances or other sensitive data.
- Do not open the door to unknown persons.
- Consult a person you trust.
- Never hand over money or valuables to unknown persons, alleged employees of the police, public prosecutor's office, courts or financial institutions.
- If you have been the victim of such a call, always contact the police and file a complaint.
You can also download our flyer on this topic in the right-hand column.