Over 20,000 euros gone

Promises of gold end with an emptied account

A 48-year-old woman from Hall in Tyrol fell victim to brazen internet fraudsters: the woman wanted to buy gold online and was tricked into making several transfers abroad. In the end, she also gave crooks access to her computer, which led to her account being plundered.

An advertisement in a video was the 48-year-old Tyrolean woman's undoing. She clicked on the link and entered her telephone number and e-mail address. In the period between mid-November and early December, the woman was contacted several times by unknown persons.

Seven transfers abroad
"The perpetrators enticed the 48-year-old woman to make a total of seven transfers to a foreign account, supposedly to buy gold," say investigators. But then the criminals went one step further.

Remote access to computers allowed
They persuaded the woman to open a cryptocurrency account. The victim then allowed access to her computer "to help set it up". "In the process, the perpetrators transferred the entire account balance to another account," the investigators continued.

The victim suffered a loss of around 22,000 euros.