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A Bulgaria-based criminal network that targeted elderly people in northern Greece through phone scams managed to make more than €600,000 from 41 victims, police said Tuesday.
A police statement said authorities were seeking a 48-year-old foreign national who coordinated the fraudulent operation, together with unknown associates, between September 2021 and August 2023.
Police said the gang specifically sought out elderly people in Halkidiki and Thessaloniki, whom gang members phoned pretending to be police officers or doctors. They claimed that their victims’ children or other close relatives had been involved in a traffic accident and urgently needed cash and jewellery – either to pay for their hospital treatment or to bribe police not to jail them.
If the victims accepted, a pick-up team was quickly sent in to collect the cash and valuables. The gang managed to raise a total €611,345 in this way, the police statement said.
Despite being increasingly common, such scams targeting elderly or other vulnerable people remain highly effective.