Passports "lost"

Mother and son collected AMS money from Turkey

For years, the mother and son team are said to have wrongfully received social welfare benefits (symbolic image).(Bild: Birbaumer Christof)

Once again, the special police unit for social benefit fraud in Tyrol has uncovered a particularly blatant case: A 58-year-old woman and her son (25) are said to have wrongly received unemployment benefits for years while they were mainly in Turkey. The scam has now been uncovered!

An anonymous tip-off got the investigation rolling, the noose became tighter and tighter - and ultimately the investigations by the "SOLBE" task force were crowned with success. 

The investigators focused on a 58-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son from the district of Kufstein - both Austrians with a migration background and unemployed. The two have allegedly been collecting unemployment insurance benefits since the beginning of 2021. Even though the mother and son are said to have spent most of their time in Turkey.

Lies about passports
However, this fact was concealed from the paying authority. "After the Public Employment Service became suspicious due to an anonymous tip-off and demanded the passports of the suspects, the suspects decided to report their Austrian passports as lost at the same time," the investigators explained.

House search ordered
In the course of an ordered house search, however, the documents reported as lost were then seized in the son's home. The years of unlawful receipt of unemployment benefit and sickness benefit could also have been proven in the end.

The AMS and the Austrian Health Insurance Fund incurred losses in the five-digit euro range, the report concludes.