Fraud involving millions

Fake bank official calls victims from Turkey

The accused telephone operator in the Vienna Regional Court. In front of the courtroom, her elderly victims wait to be questioned.(Bild: Anja Richter)

The perpetrators operate from call centers in Turkey. They deprive their elderly victims in Vienna of their life savings. One of these telephone operators will have to answer for commercial fraud and criminal association in Vienna on Monday. The 27-year-old gives an insight into the despicable system, but the story seems rehearsed.

Cold-bloodedness has many faces. In the case of the defendant in the Vienna Regional Court on Monday, however, it comes as a surprise: the 27-year-old woman presents herself elegantly, well-groomed and eloquent to Judge Michael Radasztics. She has tied her long blonde hair into a plait. Her voice is friendly but firm. 

Many victims remain silent out of shame
The accused is said to be a cog in the criminal organization that operates out of Turkey and robs elderly people of their money with robbery stories: "The aim is to commit serious fraud to the detriment of very elderly people, convincing them to empty their accounts during telephone calls. The victims hand over their life savings to a collector and the money is gone," begins the chief public prosecutor of the WKStA. "We have 250 crimes with more than twelve million euros in losses. The number of unreported cases is far higher because many victims remain silent out of shame or have a guilty conscience towards potential heirs."

The accused also claims to have a guilty conscience, but her story seems rehearsed and not very sincere: "Yes, I was a telephone operator in a call center in Istanbul, Turkey," she admits, "but I only spent a few days sniffing around." She did not have any deals, or as she calls them "hits", on her conscience, even though the WKStA has charged her with two cases. 

I pretended to be a bank employee and told the lady that someone had tried to withdraw a large amount of money with her card. That was always the first step.

Die 27-Jährige in ihrem Prozess

If the victim hands over money, the perpetrators call it a "hit"
Radasztics wants to know how she came to work in the Turkish call center: "I flew to Istanbul in October to celebrate a friend's birthday." In a club, she met one of the wire-pullers who offered her the job: "I spent three days just listening to phone calls. I was taught everything and shown how to do it." Then she tried it herself, calling a Viennese woman who was named to her by the bosses. "I pretended to be a bank employee and told the lady that someone had tried to withdraw a large amount with her card. That was always the first step." If a victim got on board with the story, they would go on to tell adventurous tales about gangs who were after the pensioners' bank assets. A "hit" was scored when the victim withdrew their savings in Vienna and handed over a large sum of money to the collector, a fake undercover investigator.

A colleague landed a gigantic hit. To celebrate, she invited us to dinner and got a tattoo and pierced ears.

Die Angeklagte über die Betrugstaten.

Artificial intelligence as a fraud assistant? 
During the trial, the defendant came up with a no less adventurous story. According to it, the procedure in the call center, which is said to be located in a detached house with a nail salon and masseur on the first floor and a fitness center next door, is as follows: When an operator had a victim on the hook, she would pass the call on to one of the bosses. The boss then completed the call with the help of artificial intelligence so that the other party didn't notice that a man was now speaking: "It's an insane system with a 'voice changer', the voice doesn't change," she claims. 

Sentence: partial imprisonment
She was promised between 10,000 and 15,000 euros for a "hit", according to the accused, who was temporarily in custody. She tells of a friend who is said to have made a "gigantic hit". In this case, the victim had handed over 600,000 euros. "To celebrate, she got a tattoo and pierced her ears." - While the victim in Vienna was shocked to realize that she had fallen for a terrible scam.

Because it could not be proven that she had made the calls that led to the "hits", she was acquitted of the fraud charge. She was sentenced to 18 months for criminal association, two of which were fixed. Not legally binding.