Serial fraud in Tyrol – senior earned €18,000 for the wrong son

“Mom, I need money urgently!” – this is how dubious WhatsApp messages that are currently doing the rounds in Tyrol and the rest of Austria begin. A 65-year-old woman from Innsbruck recently became a victim. A stranger pretended to be her son, told the older woman lies and claimed that this was his new number.

Helpful woman transferred money
In the course of the next communication, the impudent swindler suddenly asked his “mother” for money that he urgently needed. The woman must transfer it to the supposed account of the “son” as soon as possible. Which she unfortunately did. All in all, the pensioner earned about 18,000 euros!

How to protect yourself from scammers
Unfortunately, cases like this happen all the time. It is not unusual for the amounts lost by the victims to be significantly higher. The Tyrolean police provides tips on how to protect yourself against such fraudsters.

“Don’t Be Pressured”
Under no circumstances should one be put under pressure by the sender. But that was exactly what happened to a 79-year-old – also from Innsbruck – at the end of last week. Because of the “urgency”, the woman has to transfer several thousand euros by express on the same day. She too fell for the trick. “Because of the time, the banks were only open for half an hour at that time. The victim came under time pressure and did not think further about the project,” the police said at the time.

Tracking down the unscrupulous scammers is extremely difficult for the police – as is unfortunately so often the case in the field of web crime. Investigations often turn up nothing.