Elderly woman loses 140,000 euros in elaborate police impersonation scam

A 70-year-old woman in Oberbayern became the victim of a sophisticated scam after an attempt to report a previous fraud call to the police failed. The woman tried to contact the Freising police station but could not establish a connection.

Shortly after her unsuccessful attempt to reach the authorities, scammers posing as police officers from the very station she tried to contact called her. They falsely informed her about organized gangs operating in the area targeting her money and jewelry. Under this pretense, they instructed her to hand over all her valuables to them.

On Thursday, the woman complied, handing over cash and jewelry valued at 140,000 euros to the fraudsters in Kranzberg, a town in the Freising district. She had retrieved these items from her bank safe deposit box specifically for this purpose. The scam followed an earlier incident where she had recognized a fraudulent call from someone claiming to be a doctor, who demanded money and jewelry for their supposedly sick daughter.

Authorities are investigating why the woman was unable to connect with the police when she initially tried to report the first scam. The incident highlights a disturbing trend of impersonation scams targeting vulnerable individuals.