Two suspected phone scammers have been arrested in different parts of Greece for swindling elderly people out of cash and valuables worth a total €45,000, police said Thursday.
In both cases, the suspects are believed to have worked as collectors for two separate gangs that targeted vulnerable people with scams that, while common, remain highly effective.
The one arrest was made after an off-duty policeman in the central town of Agrinio saw two men on a motorbike park outside an elderly man’s house, thought they looked suspicious and removed the motorbike’s keys as a precaution.
When they returned clutching cash and jewellery worth a total €30,000 – which their victim had been talked into leaving outdoors following instructions by a scammer pretending to be an accountant – and realised what had happened the one man escaped while the other was arrested with the loot.
And in the northern Pella region, a man was arrested for allegedly having picked up €15,000 and three gold coins from an elderly woman. In this case, scammers first called her threatening violence, and then – posing as police – offered her asistance, provided she temporarily handed over the cash and valuables to an associate.
