The story began several months ago. – It was then that a man claiming to be a Polish sailor who had lived in Venice, Italy, for many years contacted a 67-year-old woman from Złotoryja County – reports asp. Aleksandra Pieprzycka of the Press Section of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław. – The conversations took place by telephone and via a messaging app. The sailor gradually gained the woman’s trust. He also decided to visit her in Poland, and they were then supposed to tour Venice together. As the date of his arrival approached, the man said that he would take some of his luggage with him and send the rest through a courier company.
The pseudo-idyll was already coming to an end, however. The spokesperson: – After some time, the woman received a message from the purported courier company stating that it was necessary to pay for the shipment. Surprised by this information, she contacted the acquaintance. The sailor claimed that he had completed all the formalities related to the shipment, but because he had sent items valuable to him, he asked the woman to pay for the parcel. He promised to reimburse her after arriving in Poland.
The woman began to suspect that she had been deceived. But only when... the man failed to arrive at the appointed time, explaining that he had overslept and missed the plane. The 67-year-old woman therefore went to a police station and filed a report.
A resident of a neighboring county lost more than PLN 15,000. Police:
We appeal to residents to exercise caution and common sense when dealing with people we do not know or have not met directly, but only through social media platforms, messaging apps or dating applications.