There was only a little left, and the elderly woman from Pilsen would lose half a million crowns. Another attempted fraud, which is being investigated by police officers from the economic crime department of the Pilsen Police Department, has a happier ending this time than for many previous victims.
At Bitcoin ATMs, police often post flyers warning of fraud. illustrative photo
| Photo: Police of the Czech Republic
A woman contacted the offender by phone October 23, 2023 and introduced himself as an employee of a bank, saying that he would like to negotiate favorable terms for a loan of 250,000 crowns, which she should have applied for herself. He was not deterred either when the woman replied that she had not applied for any credit and that she also had an account with another bank. He then fictitiously transferred her to an employee of another banking company and subsequently to the ‘security department’.
“There, they advised the woman to block her account, considering that, according to them, someone is probably acting under her name. Subsequently, another employee of the department advised her to withdraw 490,000 crowns from her account, deposit the money in a Bitcoin machine and convert it into cryptocurrency. The explanation was that this would be the best way to protect your money from a possible attack by a fraudster. In addition, various documents to activate the electronic account were sent to her e-mail. Fortunately, at the moment when she was about to put the money in the Bitcoinmat, the woman realized that it was about fraud and reported the whole thing to the police,” police spokeswoman Michaela Raindlová described the case.
The alleged sailor lured more than seven million from the woman, she also committed embezzlement
Following her notification, the police commissioner initiated criminal proceedings on suspicion of committing the offense of attempted fraud.
The police advises how not to become a victim of fraud:
– do not respond to similar phone calls – do not share your bank account, online banking or payment card details with anyone
– do not allow anyone remote access to your computer
– fraudsters can imitate not only a phone number, but also, for example, an e-mail address. So do not respond to any calls to withdraw cash and deposit it into other accounts or instructions to buy cryptocurrency
– if you have any doubts, contact your bank immediately or call 158
