Four people have been arrested in northern Greece hours after defrauding an elderly woman out of tens of thousands of euros using a common but effective phone scam, authorities said Tuesday.
A police statement said the suspects belong to a gang that called up the woman in a village near Domokos in central Greece Monday, ostensibly on behalf of the tax authorities, and talked her into leaving any cash and valuables kept at home outdoors to be supposedly officially registered.
When she agreed, police said, the four suspects arrived in a car, picked up over €37,000 in cash and jewellery of unspecified value, and headed off towards Thessaloniki.
The woman smelt a rat and called police, who stopped the car near the northern town of Katerini and confiscated the loot.
Similar scams targeting elderly or otherwise vulnerable people in rural Greece who keep valuables and cash at home are very common and most often find their mark, while saving criminals the risk and unpleasantness of the violent home invasions that they have come to replace.
