2024-09-24 16:14:32
Fraud Ticker
Cooking pot scam: Criminals steal 110,000 euros from senior citizen
Updated on 24.09.2024 – 15:18Reading time: 4 min.
Fraudsters are inventive when it comes to cheating people out of their money. We’ll show you which scams are currently in circulation.
Criminals are constantly trying to get sensitive account and credit card data as well as personal information from consumers. They primarily use digital channels to do this. Find out what tricks they use here.
Fraudsters in Saxony defrauded an elderly woman of 110,000 euros using the so-called cooking pot scam. In two other cases, elderly people gave the fraudsters 25,000 euros each, according to reports from the Dresden police. They only noticed the fraud later and notified the police.
In the so-called cooking pot scam, the perpetrators pretend to be police officers on the phone, usually to older people. During the conversation, they suggest to the seniors that a gang of thieves is on the move in their area, who can use a special tracking device called CC 15 to track down banknotes even inside houses and then deliberately break in.
The alleged police officers therefore advise putting the money in a pot where it cannot be located. At the same time, they offer to have a plainclothes officer collect the money and supposedly take it to safety. The real police, however, advise never to give money into the hands of strangers and not to let strangers into your home.
At the start of the new week, customers of the streaming portal Disney+ are in the spotlight of phishing. The subject of a fraudulent email that the consumer advice center warns about is “Please update your information.” The email informs customers that their subscription is supposedly suspended. The reason for this is that the bank has rejected the charge. Now the billing information should be updated via a link – otherwise the customer could lose their “benefits.”
At first glance, the email seems inconspicuous, write the consumer protection agency. However, the dubious sender address makes it clear that it is phishing. Read everything about what phishing is and how to recognize it here. Do not click on the link under any circumstances; instead, move the email to your spam folder without answering it.
An employee of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner calls and wants to help you get back money you lost: If that seems strange to you, you’re right. Fraudsters are currently abusing the name of a federal agency to make lure calls. They pretend to be employees of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI) and supposedly offer their help.
Specifically, it is about the alleged possibility of recovering money invested but lost on crypto exchanges.
However, the authority made it clear in a statement that these requests were fraudulent. The calls did not come from the BfDI. Under no circumstances should those called comply with any requests or disclose any data.
The perpetrators are trying to use the information obtained during the phone calls to carry out further fraud attempts. At the same time, however, the victims of the phishing calls must also expect to be contacted again for further fraud.
The unknown rich aunt from the USA has died – and suddenly you are an unexpected millionaire. What sounds like an unrealistic cliché is currently the subject of a well-known scam. For some time now there have been attempts to scam people with fake letters who are supposed to receive a million-dollar inheritance from abroad.
The Bad Segeberg police in Schleswig-Holstein have now noticed a further development of this scam. Instead of letters, such fraud attempts have recently often come by email, as the police explained in a press release. The criminals often first try to obtain the victims’ personal data. Ultimately, they are then supposed to pay taxes on the million-dollar inheritance.