A gang of phone scammers, all bound by blood ties, who made at least €1.6 million in three months from vulnerable people they selected from old telephone directories has been broken in northwestern Athens, police said Friday.
A raid in the Roma-majority Zefyri suburb Wednesday led to the discovery of the gang’s call center, from which scores of elderly people were phoned every day and talked into parting with cash and valuables they kept at home, under various pretexts.
A police statement said seven alleged gang members – two suspected leaders and five phone operators – were arrested in the raid and face charges of belonging to a criminal organization and aggravated fraud.
Police referred to the gang as a “family enterprise” as all the suspects are related, and said they belonged to “the same social group.”
They allegedly pretended to be accountants, fraudulently claiming that all cash and valuables kept outside the banking system needed to be registered with tax authorities on pain of a fine, or power company employees who pretended their victims had wiring issues at home that would require a visit.
