Wednesday, November 12, 2014

The Fake Grandson Gimmick

Germany has an interesting criminal scam going on....referred to as the "fake grandson" trick.

An older German....usually over the age of sixty-five.....gets a call that little "Johan" has gotten into trouble and needs seven-thousand Euro (rarely ever less than three-thousand) to get out of trouble.  So the older relative doesn't consult with Mom or Dad....they just go to the local bank and withdrew the money.  They hand it over to someone who meets them at the bank door, and then find out six hours later that little "Johan" wasn't ever in trouble.

I'd take a guess that the trick occurs at least twenty times a day across Germany (eighty million residents).

The local newspaper here in Wiesbaden will chat on the ongoing subject at least once a week.  Last week....a bank clerk asked an old gal why she was taking five-thousand Euro out of the bank and the story came out.  The clerk called the cops and stopped the old person from falling into the victim status.

A crime?  I'm not sure if the prosecutor folks can do much.  As far as I can see...no one has been convicted yet of a crime.

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