"Love scamming" is a scam - like "fake police officers", "grandchild trick" or "fake craftsmen", with which older people in particular are often robbed of money and jewelry.

The perpetrators mostly operate from call centers in Turkey or in Eastern Europe.

The Bavarian Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) recently once again drew attention to the serious health consequences of these acts for those affected: "The victims often suffer massively from anxiety and depression when they realize that they have been cheated." Many dared Often not ashamed to report the deeds.

Therefore, a high number of unreported offenses can be assumed.

Karen Truscheit

Editor in the “Germany and the World” department.

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In Bavaria alone, fraudsters stole two million euros with the grandchild trick in 2021, and around 6.1 million euros with the “fake police officer” scam.

And the perpetrators were able to tap a total of 3.7 million euros in "shock calls" - the police registered 4168 of these calls last year in Bavaria.

In the case of a shock call, a "policeman" or "public prosecutor" answers the phone and frightens the person called with the message, for example, that the son or granddaughter allegedly caused an accident with serious injuries.

Relatives could only be "bought free" from prison by paying a large sum of money.

Eisenreich – Bavaria is chairing the conference of justice ministers this year – spoke out in favor of stricter penalties for these types of fraud: “If the perpetrators specifically exploit the weaknesses of older people, this is a high level of wrongdoing.” For cases of organized call center fraud Bayern therefore propose an increased minimum sentence of two years – instead of one year as before.

"But the Federal Minister of Justice has not yet taken any action." In Germany, it is often not the heads of the organization who are caught, but usually only the perpetrators at the bottom of the hierarchy collect the money from the victims in order to "bring it to safety" from alleged burglars.

But Eisenreich emphasizes that word has to get around