Major blow against telephone fraudsters

In the early hours of Tuesday morning (13.06.), the residents of a total of 11 residential and commercial buildings in Oberhausen (9), Duisburg (1) and Essen (1) received an unexpected visit. Task forces from the Oberhausen and Essen police headquarters gained access to the properties, for which the Duisburg district court had issued search warrants at the request of the Duisburg public prosecutor's office. The Oberhausen investigators had already become aware of a group of nine people at the end of 2022 after a particularly large number of EC cards had been reported stolen or lost to the police in a short period of time.

The investigators quickly discovered that there was a direct link to the so-called "grandchild trick 2.0", in which criminals pretend to be children or grandchildren via WhatsApp, SnapChat and text messages and claim that their previous phone number is no longer valid for various reasons. The phone scammers then ask their victims to save the supposedly new phone number in order to contact them again in the next step and feign an alleged emergency. As a rule, they then pretend that an urgent bank transfer is required, but this is not carried out because online banking is supposedly not possible with a new device and new telephone number.

The well-organized and highly professional gangs are unusually successful with this scam, which targets senior citizens in particular, and not only in Germany. Several hundred thousand euros are transferred to the fraudsters' accounts every month and then transferred on from there, often in a way that can no longer be traced. The Oberhausen investigators have provisionally arrested two people and transported seven others to the police station for ED treatment or further questioning.

They seized 27 cell phones, numerous laptops, USB sticks, over 50 SIM cards, several EC cards, over 50 copies of ID cards, bank statements and around 58,000 euros in cash in the residential premises and a kiosk. Furthermore, small quantities of narcotics, a loaded alarm gun and a stolen e-scooter were seized. All seized items will be analyzed in close cooperation with specialists from the State Criminal Police Office in Düsseldorf to shed further light on the case.