Formia – She thought she'd renewed her car insurance at a discounted price, but she fell into the trap of a skilled scammer. Officers from the Formia Police Station have reported a 39-year-old Romanian woman, resident in the province of Naples, at large. She's accused of defrauding an elderly local woman using a tried-and-true scheme of fake online quotes.
The mechanism of the scam It all started when the victim, a woman over seventy, searched for a quote for her car on a website apparently linked to a well-known insurance agency.
After receiving a formal email, the woman was contacted by telephone by an accomplice (a man, currently unidentified) who, in a convincing manner, instructed her on the payment methods.
The scammer pretended to be an insurance agent
To pay the €555 fee, the elderly woman was prompted to scan a QR code sent directly to her smartphone. Convinced of the legitimacy of the transaction, she went to a local betting shop to complete the transaction.
Only later, when the policy documents never arrived, did she realize that the beneficiary's details had nothing to do with the chosen company.
The investigations. After the complaint was filed at the Via Spaventola offices, the police began a series of computer and banking checks. The investigation allowed them to follow the trail of the money: the €555 had been transferred to a prepaid card registered to the 39-year-old Romanian woman.
The woman was subsequently identified and reported to the Cassino Public Prosecutor's Office. The authorities are taking this opportunity to recommend extreme caution when making online payments, always verifying the identity of beneficiaries and urging people to be wary of immediate payment requests through unconventional channels.
Source EDITORIAL TEAM
Comments (1)
I read the article and it seems incredible to me how someone could be scammed in this way. It's important to be wary of these scams, but it's not always easy to tell who's trustworthy. Let's hope the woman gets her money back.