Elderly swindler in the Foggia area: two Neapolitan women arrested

Two women, aged 19 and 20, residents of Acerra and Sant'Anastasia, were arrested on charges of defrauding an elderly man in Monte Sant'Angelo, in the province of Foggia. The Carabinieri executed a house arrest order in the two municipalities near Naples, issued by the preliminary investigations judge of the Foggia court at the request of the local prosecutor's office.

The alleged incident dates back to July 3, 2025, and is part of a sad trend of scams perpetrated against vulnerable groups by traveling criminals. After completing the required formalities, the two young women were placed under precautionary measures at their respective homes.

The fake marshal scam

The scam followed a tried-and-true but unfortunately still highly effective criminal script. The victim received an initial call on her landline from a man who, posing as her nephew, managed to extract her cell phone number. A few minutes later, the second phase of the psychological trap was triggered.

The elderly man was contacted by a self-styled attorney claiming to be acting on behalf of a Carabinieri marshal. The scammer urgently requested money to pay off some supposedly outstanding fines and avoid serious legal consequences for the fake family member.

The collection and the investigations

Convinced of the truthfulness of his story, the man gathered all the gold jewelry stored in the house and €500 in cash. The loot was then handed over directly to a young woman who appeared at his door shortly thereafter.

However, the escape of the two alleged accomplices was short-lived thanks to the timely activation of the Carabinieri investigation. The officers cross-referenced footage from the area's video surveillance systems with thorough technical checks. This work allowed them to locate the rental car used for the trip to Puglia and identify the two twenty-year-old Neapolitan women as the alleged perpetrators of the robbery.