A 65-year-old woman from the municipality of Paternion lost more than 20,000 euros to brazen scammers. They had promised her a prize of 180,000 euros…
The scam began on July 11 of this year. The 65-year-old signed up on a website with her name, phone number and email address to make an investment in oil. She was contacted shortly afterwards by Austrian numbers asking her to pay 250 euros. According to the “financial advisors” with whom the woman spoke on the phone, this amount was to be invested in shares. Access to the computer and cell phone Under the direction of the perpetrators, the woman installed two programs on her PC and her cell phone, which gave the strangers access to the devices. “The supposed financial advisors suggested to the victim that they would help her set up a crypto account!” reports the police. A few days later, the Carinthian had allegedly already made a profit of 30 euros and was then asked to send her passport and a picture of herself to the scammers. “The woman also complied with this request!”18,000 euros profitOn July 19, she was contacted by a man who introduced himself as the head of the crypto bank. She would have won 180,000 euros with her investment and to be able to receive the sum, she would only have to transfer 10 percent of the amount to the crypto bank. What the woman did not know: the perpetrators had already tried to transfer the money remotely, but this was unsuccessful. The fraudsters therefore tried to persuade the woman to transfer the money with a contract. She complied and the next day again transferred “fees” amounting to several thousand euros. “Financial advisors were arrested!” Shortly afterwards she received another call: A man informed her that the alleged financial advisors had been arrested. “He pretended that he needed access to her computer to send her the money back,” police said. She gave him access and immediately attempted to transfer €14,000 from her husband’s account to hers to steal the same amount. Only the husband’s bank recognized the transfer as fraud and blocked the process. “The woman suffered a loss of several thousand euros as a result of these machinations,” said a police officer.
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