Incident in Italy Cab driver prevents fraud against old woman
An elderly lady falls victim to a scam in Italy's Veneto region. But when the cab driver who drives the fraudster to the place where the money is to be handed over becomes skeptical, he sets about foiling the plan.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- In Veneto, a cab driver helped foil a scam.
- A woman got into his cab and asked to be taken to an address she didn't know in the small town of Ceggia.
- There, the driver noticed an elderly woman in an agitated state.
- When his customer returned with a bulky rucksack, he alerted the authorities.
- Stolen goods worth several 10,000 euros were found in the woman's bag.
- The victim had fallen for a scam.
Giovanni Bortoletto has been a cab driver in Italy for 13 years. But he will certainly not forget this customer in a hurry.
A young woman with a foreign accent asked the 34-year-old to drive her from Mestre station to Ceggia, a small town in the province of Venice. Nothing special. But when Borletto noticed that the woman didn't seem at all familiar with the house at the address, he became suspicious.
The woman asked him to stop at the entrance to another street and wait for her there because she would then have to return to Mestre immediately, as the newspaper "Corriere del Veneto" writes.
Agitated elderly woman discovered
While he was waiting, Bortoletto contacted his brother, who also drives a cab for a living. Shortly afterwards, he noticed a visibly agitated elderly woman. When asked, she stated that she had to deliver a package to a Mrs. Rossi.
At that moment, the cab driver's customer came back: "She asked me to leave in a loud voice," says Bortoletto, who immediately decided to alert the police without arousing suspicion. To do so, he secretly contacted his brother again.
Loot of several 10,000 euros
The woman got back into the cab with a bulky rucksack and wanted to be driven back to Mestre station. In the meantime, the police officers, who had been alerted by Bortoletto's brother, went to the elderly woman's apartment.
At the same time, Bortoletto was told to let the police know when it was only ten minutes to the station. The woman in the cab sensed that something was wrong and started screaming. Suddenly she wanted Bortoletto to let her out at a different location. He stuck to his original destination.
At the bus station in Mestre, she left the cab and tried to escape to a hotel. Instead, she ended up in police custody. Jewelry and money with a total value of several 10,000 euros were found in the backpack.
Falling for a scam
The elderly woman had fallen for a classic telephone scam. As "Vanity Fair" explains, she had received a message that persuaded her to hand over her valuables and money.
"Your daughter caused a very serious car accident and because of her, a pregnant woman is now dying," the claim read. "If you don't want her to spend the rest of her life in prison, you must pay a high bail immediately."
Telephone scams targeting the elderly are not uncommon in Switzerland either.
The editor wrote this article with the help of AI.
