Telephone fraud Senior citizen from Meilen ZH puts a stop to fraudsters
The Zurich cantonal police have arrested two fraudsters - with the help of an 81-year-old woman from Meilen.
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- An 81-year-old woman in Meilen ZH was the victim of an attempted telephone scam in which the perpetrators pretended to be a police officer and a bank employee.
- The senior citizen recognized the scam, contacted the real police and played along to lure the perpetrators into a trap.
- The Zurich cantonal police were then able to arrest two men who wanted to collect the supposed money and gold, which meant that the senior citizen suffered no financial loss.
Last Thursday, an 81-year-old woman in Meilen ZH received a telephone call to her landline from a man. He pretended to be a police detective and told her a made-up story about an alleged investigation into burglars.
The fraudsters called the elderly lady several times and pretended to be bank employees or public prosecutors. They tried to gain the elderly woman's trust in a perfidious manner. They wanted to get her to withdraw large assets from the bank, according to the Zurich cantonal police.
However, the senior citizen became suspicious and contacted the police. At the same time, she kept in touch with the fraudsters and pretended to be unsuspecting. In the meantime, she was instructed by telephone to withdraw large sums of money from the bank. She was told to exchange some of it for gold bars and keep it ready for collection, the press release continues.
Police arrested two people
On Tuesday morning, the suspected telephone fraudsters called the senior citizen again and announced that they would collect the gold and cash worth several tens of thousands of francs.
After 5 p.m., a man appeared and took the package deposited outside the apartment door and left. Investigators from the Zurich cantonal police observed the previously unknown man and were finally able to see him hand over the parcel with the alleged loot to another man in Olten at around 7.30 pm.
The police arrested both men: the man who transported the parcel from Meilen to Olten was a 54-year-old Kosovan. The man who received it was a Swiss man aged 28.
After being questioned by the police, both suspects were handed over to the public prosecutor's office. The 81-year-old senior citizen suffered no financial loss.