Hypnose, ruse et superstition
As related The voice of the North, last January 25, a woman of a certain age arrives at Roubaix station where she is approached by a man of North African origin, like her. He asks her for the direction of the mosque and tells her that he knows her. He also calls her by her first name, talks to her about his daughter, again giving her first name. “My mother was not suspicious, explains to the regional daily his son Farès.
The individual places, always according to the son, “a black stone in his hand and while talking to him without stopping, he entered his head. My mother was like remote control “. It is then reported a mixture of hypnosis, cunning, superstition which lead this woman to go to her home and give her interlocutor a box containing family jewels.
“He was waiting for her at the bottom of the building. He took the jewelry from the box. He went so far as to try to rob her by directly taking the rings and the necklace she had on her and then he left threatening her. That’s when she realised. She screamed. Neighbors came out to help him but it was already too late.” told Farès to The voice of the North. He indicated that a complaint had been lodged at the Roubaix police station.
Proof is difficult to establish
However, this victim would not be the only one. In the Lille metropolis, several families have already reported the same procedure with the famous black stone placed in their hands. The individual or individuals target women of a certain age, of North African origin.
This mental manipulation is however difficult to establish. For Nora Missaoui-Lefebvre interviewed by BFMTV, the credibility of the victims depends on few things, especially when filing a complaint. “You are asked for something, you hand it over of your own free will, there is no fraudulent embezzlement, so the victims, we did not believe them (…) However, this is indeed the case, and it exists“, says the lawyer who represents around thirty victims.
If the notion of theft by trickery exists in the criminal code and is punishable by 7 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros, the burden of proof, in the case of hypnosis, is complex to establish.
“Samaoui scam”
Two years ago, on the other side of the Mediterranean, in Morocco, the General Directorate of National Security alerted the population to this process using hypnosis techniques. The same one used for the French victims was used in the Kingdom. The crook, pretending to be a marabout endowed with supernatural powers capable of purifying his victim of a supposed curse.
The outcome is often the same: the targeted woman hands over her valuables in exchange. This type of scam has been dubbed “Samaoui scam”. A sort of sleight of hand during which the jewels (very often) vanish at the same time as the supposed marabout.
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