At the beginning of October, a 40-year-old resident of Jawor County reported to the Jawor police. – The woman fell victim to a fraudster who, as it turned out, pretended to be a partner in love with her – explains Staff Sergeant Paweł Noga from the Lower Silesian Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Wrocław.
The whole story began in January. The spokesperson:
The 41-year-old man from Jawor told the victim that he was seriously ill with cancer and had just begun oncology treatment in Germany. The fraudster asked the woman for financial support related to procedures, transport and the purchase of expensive medicines.
And he adds:
The woman from Jawor County, in love and wanting to help, gave her partner money several times, in a total amount of PLN 50,000. Some of the sum consisted of the 40-year-old's savings, while some was money borrowed from acquaintances.
The fraudster was calculating and cunning. To make his version of events credible, he told the victim that he was under the constant care of a well-known oncologist from Wrocław. The woman who reported the matter checked the doctor's name. When it turned out that such an oncology specialist existed, she became convinced that her partner really needed help.
Staff Sergeant P. Noga: – The man also purchased two prepaid phone cards and gave both numbers to his partner, claiming that they were the telephone numbers of the doctor treating him. The victim, believing that she was corresponding with an oncologist from Wrocław, was actually sending SMS messages to the 41-year-old fraudster.
And he adds: – The matter might not have come to light if not for the fraudster's real fiancée, who contacted the victim and told her that she was not the first person to have been deceived in this way by the 41-year-old.
Detectives arrested the 41-year-old. He was charged with fraud. He immediately admitted guilt but did not want to give an explanation. He only undertook to return the defrauded amount to the victim.
The fraudster now faces up to 8 years in prison.