Catania: They threaten an elderly woman, pretending to be law enforcement officers. The State Police arrests the scammers

They thought of to rob an old lady, taking advantage of her age and her emotional state, considering her a particularly vulnerable subject.

The two scammers, however, did not take into account the woman's cunning, a 80 year old from Catania, who, with a keen investigative acumen, he immediately sensed the attempted scam and she managed to defend herself, putting into practice the suggestions and advice she had learned in recent months, after following the information campaigns of the State Police and, in particular, the campaign “Together for safety” created by the Catania Police Headquarters.

In this way, the plan devised by the two scammers, respectively a 21 year old from Catania e 26enne native to of Ragusa failed miserably, thanks to a series of brilliant countermoves that the old woman managed to put into action in a few moments.

After contacting the victim by phone, one of the scammers introduced himself as “Police Commander” and reported that the son had been involved in a car accident, causing the death of a pregnant woman.

To make the story even more credible, the fake member of the police force passed the phone two other accomplices, a pseudo-lawyer and a alleged judge, and then made the request that should have made the woman give in.

“To save your son from prison, you must hand over all the money and gold jewellery in your possession to one of the officers who will shortly ring the doorbell at your home.”.

On the other end of the phone, however, the woman had already understood everything also because, just a month ago, she had come across a similar episode, thus managing to foil, in that case too, the plan through which the scammer had attempted to defraud her with the same modus operandi.

For this reason, the elderly woman remained calm and continued to comply with her interlocutor's requests, keeping him on the line, without making him suspicious.

In the meantime, he thought of writing a message to daughter, via a messaging chat, to ask to notify the police.

Once the report has reached the Operations Room, the officers Flying Team of the Police Headquarters of Catania They immediately reached the woman's home, still on the phone with the scammer.

The police intercepted one of the accomplices of the scam while he was ringing the doorbell to collect what the woman had promised on the phone.

The man of 44 years, already known to the Police Forces for the numerous precedents for crimes against property and for having scored scams of the same type, it was arrested red-handed by the policemen.

The criminal, always on the phone with the old lady, not knowing of the arrest of his accomplice, and not receiving any answers, decided to send another accomplice.

At that point, the police decided to lurk under the house, waiting for the arrival of the other accomplice.

Even in this case, the old lady was able to stand up to the scammer and agreed to open the door to the house. second emissary, 21enne.

The young man, who thought he had to collect the bag containing money and jewels, found himself faced with one of the policemen who arrested him.

On this occasion, the two men were arrested for attempted extortion, As They threatened the victim with arresting her son if she didn't pay, not limiting itself to the commission of the less serious crime of fraud.

Having heard the Public Prosecutor on duty, the 26enne was conducted in prison, while the 21enne was placed to the arrest, awaiting the validation judgment before the GIP.

The Preliminary Investigations Judge, as requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office, has the arrest was validated for the crime of attempted extortion by applying the precautionary measure of house arrest to the 21-year-old and that of pre-trial detention in prison to the 26-year-old.

In this way, the police officers of the Police Headquarters discovered the existence of a real criminal organization, with individuals ready to enter the scene after receiving a text message with the order to go and collect money and valuables from the homes of unaware victims, receiving, in exchange, 25% of the value of the proceeds.

These aspects demonstrate how the mechanism of scams for the elderly has become a particularly complex system, organized by unscrupulous scammers down to the smallest details, to try to deceive the most vulnerable people at all costs.