Series of calls

83-year-old was smarter: bail trick went wrong

Symbolic image

(Bild: Stefan Gruber www.touristikfoto.com)

The brazen crooks didn't expect this: Together with a bank employee who reacted correctly, an 83-year-old Tyrolean woman outwitted fraudsters who wanted to scam large sums of money from her using the "bail trick".

At around 1.30 p.m. on Friday, the local resident from the Innsbruck area received a call from a fake police officer saying "This is the police", informing her that her daughter had caused a serious traffic accident. A woman had died in the accident. The phone was then briefly handed over to a crying woman. When the 83-year-old woman stated that she did not have a daughter, the case was diverted to her daughter-in-law, who would have to be arrested unless bail was paid in the mid five-figure euro range.

Crooks also wanted gold
The victim then agreed to pay the deposit and had to go to the bank to withdraw the money while in constant telephone contact with the fraudster. The unknown perpetrator then turned the conversation to other assets and also demanded that the gold investments in the low five-figure euro range be handed over.

After the woman was instructed not to inform anyone and not to interrupt the telephone contact, she entered the bank branch with the telephone switched on and kept it in her handbag. When the 83-year-old woman was asked by the bank employee whether she would like to withdraw money, she signaled the bank employee to be quiet by putting her finger to her lips.

Police notified
The attentive and correctly reacting bank employee then asked the 83-year-old woman to go to her own office without addressing the matter and called the police in another office. This prevented the mid-five-figure euro sum from being handed over to the unscrupulous crooks.

Series of calls
That day was not the only attempt by unknown criminals to scam money in Tyrol using the bail or police trick. There is no trace of the crooks.