File photo.
Three people have been identified and face charges for allegedly pulling a phone scam that cost an elderly woman in western Greece her cash savings that she had stashed at home for safe-keeping, authorities said Sunday.
A police statement said the scammers contacted the woman in November 2025 and talked her into parting with €76,500. They pretended to be electricity company employees, claimed that the woman’s flat had a wiring problem and persuaded her to leave any cash she kept at home at the entrance to her apartment block for safety – then picked it up and vanished.
The scam is common yet highly effective, despite hundreds of arrests and public awareness campaigns.
Also Sunday, police on Crete said they had arrested four men and a woman accused of defrauding nine elderly people in the Iraklio area out of a total €21,450 in cash and jewellery worth €38,000 using a similar method.
