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Hanover (dpa / lni) - In Lower Saxony, fraudsters are increasingly using the trick of pretending to be police officers - and thus causing millions in damage.
In the past year there were around 8,000 cases with false police officers across the country, as a spokeswoman for the State Criminal Police Office of the German Press Agency said.
In 2019 there were still around 7,500 cases.
However, the wrong police officers only had success with their scam in around 100 cases in 2020 - similar to the year before.
In 2019, in just under 100 cases, false police officers deprived the mostly older victims of their savings or jewelry, as the State Criminal Police Office listed.
Their booty in Lower Saxony amounted to around three million euros last year, and in 2019 it was even more than three million euros.
Often in these fraud cases, the alleged police officers surprise mostly very old people on the phone with stories of lies, scare them to death and deprive their victims of their savings.
For example, they warn of alleged burglar gangs.
According to the State Criminal Police Office, the information is provisional and constantly changing because the investigations are still ongoing in many cases.
The number of cases is therefore a trend towards the development of the situation, for which figures from the input statistics were also used.
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According to earlier information from the State Criminal Police Office in Hanover, the number of these acts has been increasing massively for years.
In 2015, the authority registered a total of 236 cases.
The masterminds in such cases often operate from Turkey.
Last November there was a bold case: fake police officers captured five kilograms of gold worth more than 200,000 euros in Stuhr in the Diepholz district.
A fraudster had called a then 85-year-old pensioner, pretended to be a police officer and asked for help to convict a bank employee of theft.
Accordingly, the pensioner should help the police and order five kilograms of gold from his bank.
The caller later asked the man to pick up the gold and put it in a bag in front of the house - the police had everything under control.
When the old couple checked later, the treasure had disappeared without a trace.
The police repeatedly warn of fraudsters who falsely pretend to be police officers.
The real police will never ask for money or valuables to be handed over.
According to information from the authorities, in many cases the banks also pay attention when their senior customers withdraw an unusually large amount of money.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210321-99-907782 / 2