The Małopolska police and the Małopolska Provincial Branch of the National Health Fund in Krakow jointly warn against the escalating practice.
"Grandchild", "policeman" or "bank employee" fraud are well-known methods of criminals. Now, in the autumn-winter season, when illnesses and infections increase, the number of "illness" scams also increases dramatically.
It all starts with a phone call
The caller pretends to be a family member, doctor or hospital employee. It informs that a loved one is in a critical condition and their life depends on the immediate administration of an expensive drug. There is little time left to pay for the alleged treatment.
As an operational officer from the Criminal Department of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Krakow explains, criminals know perfectly well how to manipulate emotions.
The perpetrator of the crime is very emotional, sounds very credible, knows social engineering, knows how to manipulate, knows how to talk so that the message reaches the depths of the injured person - explains the officer.
It all depends on who the telephone operator is. First of all, strong emotions are the most important. It may be crying, it may be screaming, it may be acting on love, i.e. on the positive side. The most important thing is to arouse strong emotions that flood the injured person so that they do not have time to think logically - adds the policeman.
Fraudsters do everything so that the victim does not have time to think and check the story they have heard. They tell you to stay on the line, and sometimes they even suggest contacting the police or an ambulance. This is another element of manipulation.
Sometimes perpetrators, wanting to make their actions credible, ask the injured person to dial a telephone number, for example the police, ambulance or emergency number, but without hanging up. In fact, the injured person enters the number 112 during the conversation, thinking that he is calling an emergency number, but in fact he is still on the line with fraudsters - warns the investigator.
How do criminals track their victims?
Criminals do not need advanced IT systems or access to secret databases. According to the police, fraudsters often use ordinary, old telephone books. They find numbers, names and addresses of potential victims. They are particularly interested in people using landline phones.
They check people who live in a given area, in a given area. If someone they are calling answers the phone number, it automatically means that it is an elderly person, because most young people do not use landline phones anymore - explains the officer.
The perpetrators have a very easier task because the telephone books contain the name and surname of the person who owns the telephone number, and of course they have the telephone number as well as the address where this person lives - adds the policeman.
The remaining information is obtained by fraudsters during the conversation. Terrified people may reveal the names of their children, grandchildren or other details about their family. Criminals immediately use them to add credibility to their invented story.
Fraud in Skawina. The 82-year-old believed that her daughter was dying
An 82-year-old resident of Skawina (Lesser Poland Voivodeship) received a phone call some time ago. She heard a voice on the phone that she took to be her own daughter's voice. She has to stay in hospital and fight for her life. A moment later, another phone rings. This time the interlocutor pretends to be a doctor. Confirms the dramatic news: the senior's daughter dies from Covid-19.
However, there is help - specialized, extremely expensive treatment. You just need to transfer the money immediately.
The terrified 82-year-old packed her life savings - PLN 20,000 - and gave them to a woman who appears in front of her house, pretending to be a hospital employee. In fact, there is a so-called a collector, i.e. a person whose task is to take money from the victim.
The case was handled by police officers of the Criminal Department of the Police Headquarters in Krakow. They quickly determined that the suspect had left Skawina and moved to Nowa Huta. Investigators located her in the Na Wzgórzach housing estate. According to their findings, the 31-year-old woman was on her way to another potential victim for money.
The officers detained the suspect. During a search of her apartment, they found PLN 14,000. The woman has already spent some of the extorted money.
She was charged with fraud and was temporarily arrested by the court.
“Thousands and thousands of calls.” A policeman on the scale of fraud
Since I have been working in this department, I have had to deal with calls to injured parties every day. I think that in one day there are several, sometimes even several dozen calls, but in a year I think that we can easily talk about thousands of people who have either been defrauded or have fallen victim to an attempted crime. Thousands and thousands of calls - says the operational officer of the Criminal Department of the Police Headquarters in Krakow.
The officer emphasizes that this concerns the scale of all telephone frauds committed using the "legendary" method, not only "sickness" frauds.
According to the investigator, telephone fraud has become a daily occurrence in his work. Criminals operate systematically, calling new potential victims and using new fraud scenarios.
Scammers call every day. They call 15-20 people every day. This is a normal factory. There are a lot of scams of this type, warns the officer.
The case from Skawina is not isolated. Recently, the police have recorded further extortion cases in which criminals took advantage of the fear for the lives of loved ones.
A 79-year-old resident of Krakow lost PLN 50,000. The woman was convinced that she was saving her daughter, who was allegedly fighting for her life in one of Krakow's hospitals after being infected with Covid-19.
An 87-year-old senior transferred PLN 150,000 to fraudsters. The criminals told him that his daughter urgently needed life-saving medicine.
An 80-year-old man lost PLN 40,000. A fraudster pretending to be the head of one of Krakow's hospitals convinced him that his daughter was infected with a deadly virus.
A senior citizen from Nowa Huta paid PLN 25,000 to criminals. She was convinced that the money would be used to treat her dying son. In this case, the police quickly detained one of the fraudsters. He had the entire extorted amount with him.
In all these cases, the criminals used a similar mechanism: dramatic news, time pressure and the victim's belief that only an immediate transfer of money could save the life of a loved one.
The police appeal: Hang up and check if your loved one really needs help
We appeal primarily to young people who have a direct influence on their loved ones to talk to their grandparents, parents, relatives and friends to explain what this practice looks like - says Asp. Anna Zbroja-Zagórska from the Provincial Police Headquarters in Krakow.
The police never want money, they never ask for money. It is also similar with the National Health Fund. Doctors do not ask for cash, he adds.
As the officer emphasizes, in such a situation the most important thing is to interrupt the conversation. Then you should call your loved one yourself, using the previously known telephone number.
Do not call back the number provided by a suspicious caller or transfer money to unknown persons.
