Thieves are becoming increasingly brazen. Their victims are most often elderly people who live alone. The Lower Silesian police recently recorded another case of this kind.
After selecting a victim, criminals call them and pretend to be a family member. It also happens that someone claiming to be an employee of the Municipal Social Welfare Centre or a representative of ZUS knocks on the door and asks them to fill out a questionnaire supposedly related to a planned increase in their disability or retirement pension.
In the questionnaire, we state how much savings we have, what our family members are called, or who takes care of us. In this way, we provide the fraudsters with information.
They then call us and, using an altered voice, pretend, for example, to be a grandchild who is in a difficult situation—family, financial or personal—and asks for help. When the fake grandchild is supposed to come for the money, they call to say that they cannot come for very important reasons, such as illness, being in hospital or travelling. But they add that they will send a trusted friend. An accomplice arrives, collects the cash and, of course, never appears again.
Criminals prey on people’s naivety. Police appeal to residents of our county to look after their elderly relatives and make them alert to this type of behaviour. Do not:
- provide any information over the phone about our home, savings, when we are at home and who we live with
- fill out any questionnaires containing similar questions
- hand over cash or any other items to strangers
- let survey takers, salespeople or other suspiciously behaving people into the home.
All such situations should be reported to the police immediately.
(information: KPP Bolesławiec/ii)