On Friday, March 15, we reported that police officers from the Wrocław Provincial Police Headquarters, who deal with combating cybercrime on a daily basis, together with criminal division officers and police officers from Bolesławiec, detained four people suspected of defrauding one woman of more than half a million zlotys using the “police officer” method.
The whole case began with a single phone call, during which the caller, pretending to be a police officer, misled the victim. He convinced her that the money in her account was at risk.
The frightened woman gave the criminals authorization codes, which allowed them to withdraw funds from the victim’s account. The victim lost more than half a million zlotys!
(Details in the report They Scammed Her by Pretending to Be Police Officers. They Stole More Than Half a Million!).
How Not to Be Scammed?
The Provincial Police Headquarters advises: above all, remain cautious. If someone calls us pretending to be a police officer and asks us to provide information about our account or mentions handing over money, let us not take any rash action:
- do not tell anyone by phone how much money we have at home or keep in our account
- do not withdraw all our savings from the bank or transfer them to any indicated account
- call a family member and ask for advice on what to do
- do not give in to the time pressure exerted by scammers
- in particular, remember that officers never ask anyone to hand money over to an unknown person.
Officers:
If someone tries to scam us by pretending over the phone to be an officer, end the phone call! Do not engage in conversation with the scammer.
If we do not know how to react, tell someone close to us about the suspicious call. Report every attempted scam to the police.