This week, police officers from Legnica received several reports concerning the extortion of money from elderly people. Calling seniors, the fraudsters claimed to be a police officer or a family member who had caused an accident and needed money. Unfortunately, one of these people was deceived. An 83-year-old woman handed 15,000 zlotys to a “courier.”
The police appeal to the public and advise: officers NEVER inform people by telephone about cases they are conducting. They also NEVER ask anyone to hand over money to an unknown person!
Let us inform our parents and grandparents that there are people who may want to take advantage of their kindness. Let us tell them how to behave if someone calls them asking them to hand over a large amount of money (to avoid prison for causing an accident).
How not to become a victim of fraudsters?
- above all, remain cautious – if someone calls us pretending to be a member of our family and asks for money, let us not take any hasty action
- do not tell anyone by telephone how much money we have at home or in our account. Do not withdraw all our savings from the bank
- let us call someone in the family and ask whether the person who asked us for help really needs it. Let us remember that no one will blame us for acting sensibly. Let us not give in to pressure from fraudsters
- when someone tries to deceive us by pretending to be a police officer over the telephone, let us end the call! Let us not engage in conversation with the fraudster. If we do not know how to react, let us tell someone close to us about the suspicious call.