He stole the life savings of dozens of elderly people throughout Italy through a system unmasked by the Catania police thanks to a complex investigation by the Borgo-Ognina police station and reported.
This is a 37 year old resident of Benevento who pretended to be a lawyer and, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the elderly, emptied their bank accounts. This time, the 84-year-old woman ruined her tried-and-tested plan, as soon as she realized she had been defrauded, she asked the police for help in reporting the criminal.
The woman told the police that the so-called lawyer had contacted her on the phone and, in a matter of moments, had spun a completely invented story so convincingly that it had played on her emotional state.
Specifically, the scammer brought up the 84-year-old's sister and brother-in-law, who were indicated as responsible for a very serious road accident in which several people had been hit, adding that for this reason both of them were going to be locked up in prison, unless they paid compensation for the damage estimated at five thousand euros.
Hence, the request for money from the 84-year-old who, particularly worried about the fate of her family, agreed to hand over a sum of cash by meeting the fake lawyer directly at her home.
The man showed up at the victim's home and, to further support his story, suggested that the 84-year-old call her sister; after taking out his smartphone, he activated an application capable of cloning voices through artificial intelligence.
Hearing the timbre of her sister's voice, the victim of the scam, still scared for her relatives, gave the criminal, without thinking twice, all the cash she had at that moment, 1.270 euros, and also gave him the ATM card with the pin code to withdraw the remaining sum of money requested.
Not content, the man also managed to get the cell phone with the SIM card, assuring that the two family members would be immediately cleared of all charges.
A few hours later, the elderly lady managed to get in touch with her sister, unaware of the whole affair, realizing at that moment that she had been defrauded. The 84-year-old, however, did not give up and immediately wanted to speak to the police officers at the police station, providing all the details needed to get on the trail of the scammer. N
In the meantime, the fake lawyer used his victim's ATM card, withdrawing two thousand euros from a bank counter. The police reviewed the images recorded by the video surveillance systems of the bank branch where the withdrawal was made and, thanks to the contextual analysis of the telephone records, they were able to identify the author of the staging.
According to the police, the man is specialized in this type of scam, continuously perpetrated throughout the country with the same modus operandi and always targeting elderly people to rob them of their savings. The system would have brought him a turnover that investigators have estimated at over 30 thousand euros per month.
Article published on 24 January 2025 - 15:06
