The police are warning of scam-deaf fraudsters who are moving north

The police in Bergslagen went out on Monday evening with a warning and a description. They warn that the fraudsters are intrusively either trying to get into homes or trying to stay inside once they are inside.

Bluff-deaf fraudsters on their way north

- These individuals preferably seek out older people in their homes, says Anders Dahlman, who is press spokesperson at the police in Bergslagen.

Dahlman says that there have been different variations of the scheme, but that the fraudsters have recently pretended to be deaf and dumb. Around ten reports describing similar approaches have now been received by the police. It started in Skåne, moved on to western Sweden, was most recently discovered in Bergslagen, and the police suspect that the fraudsters are now moving north.

Bring binders and paper

The reports show that the fraudster had a binder or a piece of paper with them when they played dumb. Fraudsters with fake documents came to the fore about ten years ago when the police warned of a "wave" of scam-deaf people. Borås newspaper reported in 2015 that three men and one woman were sentenced for similar crimes in the area.

- The first thing I thought was "not now again", says Andy Runnqvist Pop who is a communicator at Sweden's Confederation of the Deaf.

In 2019, they went out with information that they do not work as the fraudsters act.

See the union's photos of the papers that were taken from the fraudsters about ten years ago in the video above.

- We do not hunt or beg.

The police have started a preliminary investigation in which the regions cooperate with each other.

- Instead of taking individual incidents, we see it as a cluster and take it from there, says Anders Dahlman, who is press spokesperson at the police in Bergslagen.

Clarification: SVT is aware that it is inappropriate to use the term "deaf-mute". In this case, the fraudsters pretend to be both deaf and dumb, which is why we have that wording.