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Shock call in Oschatz: Seniors in danger – 30,000 euros lost!
A senior citizen from Oschatz falls victim to a scam call. Police warn against perfidious scams and give tips for prevention.
Shock call in Oschatz: Seniors in danger – 30,000 euros lost!
The scammers call this perfidious scam that puts seniors in a corner “shock call”. This is what happened to an 83-year-old woman from near Oschatz. She was told on the phone that her daughter had caused a serious car accident near Leipzig. In order to get her daughter released, the elderly woman was asked to pay bail. The sum that she was supposed to transfer in a hurry was up to 30,000 euros. However, friends and relatives quickly uncovered this attempted fraud and warned the older woman, who was initially quite shocked, reports the lvz.de.
This type of telephone fraud is not an isolated case: Older people are repeatedly targeted by unscrupulous criminals, who often use tricks and pressure to gain trust. They use methods such as the so-called “grandchild trick” or the scam with fake police officers who pretend to be civil servants over the phone in order to get valuables, as shown on pflegehilfe-senioren.de is described.
Alarming feedback from Oschatz
Jan Arnold, head of the patrol service in Oschatz, points out that despite intensive prevention work, senior citizens continue to fall victim to such fraud. “The perpetrators are trained and know the weaknesses of their target group,” explains Arnold. Last year, police in the Oschatz district registered 70 cases of loan fraud, an increase compared to 63 cases the year before. The authorities are concerned about the constant professionalization of fraudsters, as Sascha Prause, the head of the local police station, emphasizes.
The police in Oschatz have a high clearance rate of over 70 percent in investigations. However, it is important that all citizens, especially seniors, are educated about these scams. Thanks in particular to the dedicated community police officers who work preventatively in schools and other institutions, attempts are made to point out these dangers in a timely manner.
Awareness is key
What is frightening is that the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has found an increase of over 50 percent in cyber fraud against older people in 2023. Seniors are also increasingly at risk online, as random phishing attacks make clear. They receive deceptively genuine emails from alleged banks that ask them to disclose sensitive data or redirect them to fake websites. These new methods make it urgent to train seniors in the use of digital media and to make them aware of these risks pflege-panorama.de.
An important aspect that is repeatedly emphasized in this context is that older people should be suspicious of unknown callers. In this way, many fraud attempts can be prevented from the outset. It is also advisable to abbreviate first names in the telephone book and to keep valuables safe.
In the current situation, not only the police authorities are challenged, but also society as a whole. It is time to work together to protect and ensure the safety of our older citizens and to provide them with the support they need to protect them from perfidious fraud.