Scammers attempt to dupe Luxembourg woman out of thousands

In yet another case of criminals targeting the vulnerable, an elderly woman in Luxembourg was almost forced to pay fraudsters thousands of euros in an elaborate phone scam.

The victim received a phone call from the scammers, claiming to belong to Trier police, in which they told the woman her son had knocked down a pedestrian at a zebra crossing and had subsequently been arrested. They engaged the victim in a long conversation, during which they attempted to obtain her personal information, and informed her she needed to pay quickly to get her son out of prison.

The woman's son, who wished to remain anonymous, told RTL his mother had been warned not to speak to anybody about the phone call.

"They kept ringing my mother and every time the story got worse and worse. At first they claimed I had knocked down and injured a pedestrian, then they said the pedestrian had suffered severe injuries, and finally they claimed the person had died."

The scammers kept changing the amount of money required from their victim, at one point asking her to hand over 10 kilogrammes of gold.

The woman was so frightened by her experience that she did not discuss the matter with anyone, and dutifully went to the bank to withdraw several thousand euros in cash.

However, the bank found the transaction suspicious and questioned the woman, upon which she explained the situation. Staff at the bank encouraged the woman to call her son for more details.

"I thought my mum had had a stroke when I got the phone call," her son said, explaining that he immediately drove to see her after the call.

The family lodged a complaint with the police. While they were at the police office giving details, the woman received a phone call from the scammers, who had obtained her mobile number during their previous conversations. The police monitored the call carefully in an attempt to identify the perpetrators.

The woman's son said: "This was one of the worst things I have ever heard. It's so dangerous for older people, the way these criminals try to deceive them."

The scammers eventually gave up trying to force a handover of the money. The police believe that the criminals realised the authorities had been alerted to their activities.

How to tell if it is a scam

The police told RTL that these cases are becoming more and more common, and not all victims are able to escape unscathed.

Marc Ragnacci, spokesperson for the police prevention service of the police, says the phone calls are sophisticated enough to deceive numerous victims. The scammers are able to spoof phone numbers to make it appear as though the calls are coming from Trier police.

However, police will never phone people asking for money. If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from the police, you should always write down the number and ask the official for their name. If in doubt, hang up.

In the example given above, it is recommended to get in touch with the person supposedly in custody, such as the son in the case detailed here.

Police have also warned banks to exercise caution if clients ask to withdraw unusually large sums of money. In this case, the bank's reaction prevented the victim from losing a lot of cash.

In this day and age, criminals are able to glean useful information using their victims' social media profiles, for example, identifying people with children or pets. They can then use this information to dupe their victims over the phone.

However, the Grand Ducal police believe there is a large number of unknown victims, who have been taken in by these scams but are too ashamed to report it. Despite this, the police urged anyone contacted by scammers to report the details, in order to help prevent them from re-offending. Ragnacci said the easiest thing to do is to file a complaint at your local police station.