Ludwigsburg. Jürgen Mahler was amazed when he received a Whatsapp message on his business cell phone on March 22nd. “Hello dad, I have a new phone number…” the conversation started. For Jürgen Mahler, who has no children, it was immediately clear: scammers are trying to get his money.
Mahler, whose real name is different but prefers to remain anonymous, immediately contacts the police. She suggests he go into the conversation. Maybe that way you can find out something about the perpetrator or perpetrators. So Jürgen Mahler writes back, pretending that he actually thinks the scammer is his son. “I just played dumb for it.”
Read here: This is how scammers rob pensioners in Ludwigsburg and Murr of their savings
The supposed son quickly gets down to business. Since he lost his mobile phone, he wants to have transferred 1620 euros from “dad”. At the end he also sends an account number. However, it is unlikely that the investigators will be able to do anything with it and find the actual perpetrator through them. Mahler has nevertheless filed a complaint against the unknown fraudster. And he contacted our newspaper and provided the chat history. “Maybe that will help enlighten other people.”
The Ludwigsburg police are currently receiving daily reports of attempted or successful fraud via so-called messenger services such as Whatsapp. In police circles, the grandchildren’s trick is already 2.0. the speech, since older people in particular are victims of this scam.
The pattern is always the same: the perpetrators pretend to be family members and explain that they have lost their mobile phone and therefore a new number. They quickly ask for help in the form of a money transfer.
“The account connections used by the perpetrators often lead abroad,” said the Ludwigsburg police. In some cases, German transfer accounts are also used, the holders of which often unknowingly help the perpetrators and “thus make themselves punishable for money laundering”. Either way, the money usually ends up abroad, which makes it difficult to identify the fraudsters, who are also not suspected of being in Germany.
The fake lawyer’s letters with which the mailboxes in the district of Ludwigsburg are currently being flooded are just as bold and callous. The father of a reader also received such a letter in early April. “Pre-court warning” is the title of the letter, which is said to have come from a law firm in Munich’s Maximilianstrasse. Father and daughter are quite shocked by this letter.
But neither the law firm nor the two lawyers Benjamin Kowalski and Michael Schmidt mentioned in it exist, according to the police. The reason for the reminder fee of 289.50 euros is given by the fake law firm as “telephone registration for the service contract: Euro Lotto Central Euro Jackpot-6/49” – the fraudsters apparently have plenty of imagination.
Read here: Telephone scammers from abroad are increasingly ripping off seniors
The rest of the letter is also written in a strange language – including some spelling mistakes. All in all, a lot of pressure is supposed to be built up and there are threats of the bailiff and seizure of pension, bank balances or insurance.
According to the police, the first cases in the Ludwigsburg district were registered on April 4th. Since then, 70 reports have been received in the matter. “The police headquarters in Ludwigsburg warns against filling out the attached letter of termination and the SEPA direct debit mandate and sending it to the specified fax number using the QR code,” says a recently published press release.
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