At a time when scammers prey on elderly victims through call centers—promising fake profits, selling fraudulent or non-existent products, or falsely claiming that a relative is in distress—one 80-year-old woman from Catania, on Sicily’s east coast, outsmarted the fraudsters and led them straight to the police.
The woman received a phone call from a man falsely claiming to be a police officer. He told her that her son had caused a serious traffic accident and that she needed to pay compensation in cash and jewelry to keep him out of jail.
Instead of panicking, she calmly pretended to comply while secretly alerting her daughter via an instant messaging app and asking her to contact the police.
Officers rushed to the woman’s home and ambushed one of the suspects—a courier—just as he was ringing the doorbell. He was arrested on the spot, police said.
Still on the phone with the woman and unaware that his accomplice had been caught, the scammer sent another courier to collect the money. Police, still at the scene with the woman, arrested the second suspect as well.
An investigation later revealed a criminal organization specializing in scams targeting the elderly. Police said the ringleader took the majority of the profits, while the couriers—who were responsible for collecting the money—received about 25% of the proceeds.
The woman credited her quick thinking to advice from the Catania Police Headquarters' campaign against scams targeting the elderly, police said.
