German senior tricks fraudsters with Bible

31-10-2023

Central Europe

Your daughter is in jail, and you have to pay 79,000 euros to get her out. That was the message a 78-year-old received. But instead of losing his money to a scammer, the man tricked the fraudsters themselves.

Instead of a bag with cash, the 27-year-old suspect ended up with a Bible in her hand. In addition, she will have to answer the Tiergarten District Court about her actions, Berliner Zeitung writes. According to the public prosecutor, the woman acted together with two others.

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Lawyer

She attempted to trick the man by using what is known as the grandchild trick. The 78-year-old was phoned by a woman in February. She told him that his granddaughter had caused a deadly car accident for which she was prosecuted. Another woman told the senior that she was a lawyer and that his daughter would be released if he paid a bail of 79,000 euros.

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The man, however, was quick of mind and understood the trick. He claimed that he had 81,500 euros in cash at home and invited the woman to pick it up at his house. In the meantime, he warned the police, Tagesspiegel writes. As soon as the trickster, disguised as a police officer, appeared at his house, he handed her a bag. But it did not contain euros, but a Bible.

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Immediately, the real German police arrested her for fraud, Dagen writes. Fortunately, the senior citizen did not lose any of his money and even received his Bible back.

Trick

The "grandchild trick" is a form of deception in which fraudsters pretend that a child or grandchild is in danger to convince parents or grandparents to grant money. Sometimes, they even imitate the voice of the child or grandchild to make their call more convincing. The phonecalls of the tricksters can even last for hours, Berliner Zeitung writes, to increase the pressure.

Some people have a quickness of mind to detect that something is off with the call. However, others are so shocked that they immediately believe the information. Some victims even lose their entire savings to fraudsters.