Two 26-year-old citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina were arrested in Makarska and handed over to the detention supervisor on suspicion of impersonating policemen on Monday and trying to defraud an elderly woman of 30,000 euros.
Fake police officers convinced a woman to withdraw money
The Split-Dalmatia police reported that they have completed the criminal investigation of the suspects for the criminal offense of attempted fraud, and they are suspected of contacting the injured party together with a still unknown man and misleading her.
According to police reports, an unknown man called an elderly woman and introduced himself as a police officer, assuring her that he had counterfeit money in his bank account that needed to be withdrawn and handed over to the police for forensic examination. The woman then withdrew a total of 30,000 euros from the account and, according to the agreement, was supposed to hand it over in the evening.
A close person recognized the fraud, the police organized an arrest
However, a close person suspected fraud and informed the police about everything, who organized the arrest. They spotted a suspicious vehicle near the place of the agreed handover of money, but the people moved away after noticing the police.
They soon launched a search and the suspects were found, arrested and taken to official premises, where a criminal investigation was conducted. Along with the criminal report, the two suspects were handed over to the custody supervisor, the police say.
Second case of fraud prevented in a few days
They remind that this is the second case of fraud prevented in just a few days in the area of the Split-Dalmatia Police Department, after a 65-year-old man was arrested in Split on Friday who, according to suspicions, participated in a similar fraud attempt, and the police then, with the help of a citizen who recognized the fraud, prevented the handover of money.
The police once again called on citizens to be careful, stressing that they should not fall for phone calls in which unknown persons present themselves as officials and ask to withdraw or hand over money. They stress that police officers never ask citizens to check their bills by phone or to withdraw money from banks and hand it over to unknown persons, and they call on citizens to inform their older family members about such attempts to defraud in order to prevent them from becoming victims of fraud.
(TYPE/Source: Hina/Photo: Illustration)
