The incident took place on Tuesday, 16 March. A fraudster called a Bolesławiec woman who ran a business on her landline and claimed to be an officer of the capital’s—attention!—Anti-Corruption Bureau. The businesswoman who answered the phone was immediately asked whether she was alone, because allegedly no third parties could hear the conversation.

The quasi-officer told the woman that a group of fraudsters had been apprehended by the authorities and that they had other people’s identity cards, including the Bolesławiec woman’s document. She immediately said that she had her ID card with her. This did not throw the criminal off balance, however. He began saying that an employee of a bank had stolen the personal details of several people and that someone—using the name of the reader—had taken out a loan of 40,000 zlotys.

The Bolesławiec woman wanted to end the call, at which point the pseudo-police officer changed his tone: “Do you know who you’re talking to?!”

Seeing that the woman was beginning to doubt his version of events, he told her to take a piece of paper and a pen and write down his first name, surname and service ID number. He then instructed the woman to dial the emergency number 997 after hearing a continuous tone and confirm his identity with the police duty officer.

And indeed, the “duty officer” confirmed that the Bolesławiec woman was speaking to an officer from Warsaw. But that was not the end. To confuse his victim even further, the fraudsters transferred the call to a… “prosecutor.”

He immediately pointed out that the conversation was being recorded and that the woman was not allowed to contact anyone. The Bolesławiec woman then asked why she was not being questioned at the police station or the prosecutor’s office. In response, she heard: “Morawiecki gave us the authority to question people by phone during the pandemic”.

The pretend prosecutor asked, among other things, whether the businesswoman had a personal bank account. When she confirmed that she did, he asked how much money she had in the account and what amount of those funds he should secure in case of a break-in. The woman then ended the call and phoned the police. Thus, the carefully crafted scheme ended in failure.

WARNING!

It appears that the criminals have switched from targeting senior citizens to business owners. As we have established, this was not the only incident of this type to take place yesterday in Bolesławiec County. The reader:

I want this to be publicized, because perhaps we can protect at least one person. Not everyone has had contact with the police or a prosecutor; not everyone knows how this works.

She also emphasizes that the trick involving the number 997 somewhat lulled her vigilance. The story also seemed more credible because of the pandemic situation. “The pandemic created incredible opportunities for deceiving people,” she says regretfully.

Fortunately, the Bolesławiec woman did not fall victim to the fraudsters. But how many more people will be deceived?

Let us recall that this crime is punishable by six months to as many as eight years in prison.